THE FOLLOWING IS A NEWS-GAZETTE STORY BY JENNIFER BAILEY
ABOVE: Nancy O’Kane at The Dwelling Place in Danville, which provides, food, showers, a washer and dryer for washing laundry and other services for the homeless and those at risk of homelessness.
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DANVILLE — When the Danville Rescue Mission closed earlier this year, The Dwelling Place of Vermilion County Day Center Co-Director Nancy O’Kane said they felt like they really had to step up to help the homeless in the area.
“I really think we stepped up along with Serve Together (Vermilion County community group) and we stepped up to feed them,” O’Kane said.
She said it was a little easier in the summer, providing meals, bug spray and other items like sheets and blankets.
“Winter is a totally different animal,” O’Kane said. “You go home and turn your electric blanket on and you don’t think that much about it.”
It’s hard to imagine what people are going through sleeping outside and not having kerosene for a heater.
“While it’s cold, it’s not even as cold as it’s going to get,” O’Kane added.
This Giving Tuesday, O’Kane said The Dwelling Place, 100 N. Franklin St., Danville, and other non-profit organizations in the county appreciate any financial support and they always can use more volunteers.
The Dwelling Place wasn’t open on Thanksgiving or the Friday after, but it had bags of non-perishable foods that people could pick up when they came for lunch. A church also provided blankets and other items.
“That’s kind of what we strive for, meet them where their needs are,” O’Kane said.
Lunches are served Mondays and Fridays when the day center is open 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. On Monday, they had a meal of turkey, dressing, mashed potatoes and green beans.
The Dwelling Place can serve 75-100 lunches, which includes seconds, during the week. They can see about 55-65 people on Mondays and Fridays.
O’Kane said some people spend the day, some eat and leave, and some will ask if they can take their lunch to go. O’Kane said once their lunch is over, from 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., if any food is left, they pack it up for people.
She said if someone comes at a different time, they’ll be given at least a sandwich.
“So, no one comes here hungry and leaves without something,” O’Kane said.
On Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays, they serve, from 11 a.m. to noon, a sack lunch at the front door.
“We are finding new people that we’ve not seen before, and our numbers certainly increased. We were doing probably, before the Rescue Mission closed, 250 lunches a month,” O’Kane said, about doing lunches Mondays and Fridays.
“We went from that to last month was 1,395 lunches,” she said. “I don’t know that I can sustain five days a week, once my grant is gone at the end of December. We’ll always have Monday, Friday lunches. But I’m probably going to have to just do a Wednesday (too).”
O’Kane said some of their “neighbors” as they call the people who come to The Dwelling Place, said they were eating on Monday, but not until again on Friday.
“And I knew we just had to step up,” she said.
They also can see about 75 to 100 showers being taken a month, and about that many loads of laundry too being washed a month. Volunteer hours are 350-400 a month.
The Dwelling Place has a day center, where it serves meals and people can take a shower and do laundry, and other services, including distributing hygiene products, out of First Presbyterian Church in Danville. It also has temporary housing in two homes, and is working on a third, for those who need it.
The Dwelling Place of Vermilion County was founded in April 2017 by five Danville citizens with compassionate hearts for the homeless, those at risk of homelessness and their needs. The original group of five citizens grew to a board of directors.
One of the volunteers the board is thankful for is Michael Lockhart who helps with cleaning and other needs.
He said he ended up in a difficult situation and a friend of his led him to The Dwelling Place.
“They helped a lot. This is by far the best resource we have in Vermilion County,” he said.
Once he got to a point in life that he was back up a bit, he learned The Dwelling Place may have to close a certain day if they didn’t have volunteers. He said he could volunteer.
“Things sort of snowballed and we had people doing lunches in the parking lot and people doing lunches down the road (through October),” Lockhart said.
Now when it’s the coldest part of the year and people need the food the most, he’s now at The Dwelling Place full-time to help out.
While they have a great core group of volunteers, having enough volunteers and financing have been the stumbling blocks in operating five to seven days a week, O’Kane said. Volunteers need to be at least 18 years old.
O’Kane said they run on donations and fundraisers as other non-profits, and Giving Tuesday is an opportunity if someone has a passion for something, and they’d like to be that passion, to give what you can.
For the future, while two homes The Dwelling Place has nearby to provide transitional housing are being used by families, the board is working with the city of Danville on the third house using city Community Development Block Grant funding to get it renovated. Historic preservation has been approved in what they’re going to do; the city has completed its inspection to address the roof, windows, electrical and items; and Terminix also is coming in for an inspection.
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