Homeless depend on Daybreak, which has needs of its own

David Wagoner found himself facing homelessness for the first time in his life in October.

“I was sick. I was going through cancer,” Wagoner said. “Where I was living – hadn’t been able to work.”

He couldn’t keep up with rent.

“I had to get out,” Wagoner said.

The lifelong Joliet resident talked about his experience earlier this month while staying at Daybreak Center.

The homeless services shelter on Cass Street itself is seeking help from the city of Joliet, saying it needs money to replace federal funding that is being cut back as the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development shifts priorities from homeless shelters to affordable housing.

For Wagoner, there was no housing he could afford.

Not only was he losing his apartment, but Wagoner lost 65 pounds while going through cancer treatment on a budget that was getting worse when he couldn’t work.

“I had to find a place where I could get better,” he said. “This is the first time anything like this happened to me. I’ll be 50 years old this October.”

When he came to Daybreak for help, Wagoner didn’t know what to expect.

“I came here,” he said. “I didn’t know there was a place like this. In the first two weeks I was here, I gained 18 pounds.”

That was from the food in the Daybreak kitchen, which, with the help from volunteers, provides daily meals to people otherwise on the streets.

Other things Wagoner said he got from Daybreak were simple, such as soap and clothing. Some services were more involved, such as help finding a regular place to stay.

He since has moved to his own apartment.

Meanwhile, Catholic Charities, the agency that oversees Daybreak, said troubles could just be starting for the homeless shelter if it does not find replacement funding for the money it is losing from HUD.

“We have a list of repairs that total over $500,000,” said Kathleen Langdon, director of development for Catholic Charities.

Topping the list is a new roof.

“We’re fundraising for that now,” Langdon said.

Daybreak operates on a $2.1 million budget.

This year, $619,000 of that is coming from HUD grants. Daybreak also gets $126,000 from the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

Daybreak gets money from other sources, including United Way. Catholic Charities provides Daybreak with a portion of the $1.2 million it gets from the Diocese of Joliet.

HUD will continue to fund Daybreak, Langdon said, but to a lesser degree that ultimately will mean a $250,000 reduction in federal funding.

Even before the HUD cutback, Daybreak has depended on gifts from donors, many of them coming unsought, to overcome annual deficits. But, she said, the latest funding setback may be too much.

Langdon and other Daybreak representatives went to the Joliet City Council earlier this month to make a case for city support to help fill the funding gap.

Joliet provided $240,000 a year to Daybreak before 2011, when the city cut off casino tax dollars it had been sharing with local nonprofits. The recession drove the city into its own financial crunch.

City funding for Daybreak, however, goes back to its opening in 1993, when the shelter was established as the city sought housing for the homeless away from downtown and Harrah’s Casino, which was just opening.

“There was a partnership in the beginning that put us where we are now,” Langdon said. “We feel it’s time the partnership be re-established.”

Daybreak is not likely to get an answer before the city works on its 2020 budget in the fall.

In the meantime, Pamela Thomas is grateful to have a place to stay, as Daybreak helps her to find housing so she and her sister can get back together again after losing their apartment.

“I’m trying not to have a nervous breakdown,” Thomas said. “It’s no time to have a nervous breakdown. I need to find us a place to live. I told one man we’d take the boiler room. He laughed. I was serious. I said we could put a couple of cots in there.”

Thomas said she and her sister, who has a mental disability, have lived together since they first came to Joliet in 2008. The two depend on each other, she said, and need to live together.

They turned to Daybreak once before in 2010, and got help finding an apartment where they stayed for six years.

“They were a big help,” Thomas said. “They’re a help to me now. Thank God for Daybreak.”