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Shelter nears three months of service

JANESVILLE — First you need a lot of faith.

A portable shower helps, too.

The GIFTS task force has those things and much more as it nears the end of its first three months running a men’s homeless shelter that rotates through Janesville churches.

Wednesday marked the shelter’s 80th night; it opened at St. John Vianney on Dec. 24.

Thursday, the task force invited 62 local churches to have lunch and learn about the shelter’s first months. About 30 people attended.

There have been challenges, task force treasurer Paul Benish said. But he’s seen the ministry help homeless men and bring volunteers together within their own churches and Janesville’s Christian community.

“It’s been one miracle after another,” Benish said.

Things happened fast after the task force’s first meeting in October. By December, “God had dropped” 20 inflatable mattresses and a portable shower into the force’s hands.

Local officials told GIFTS to expect two or three men per night when the shelter opened.

They had seven the first night.

Since it opened, the rotating shelter has housed 53 men with an average of 14 per night. Men arrive between 7 and 10 p.m. They have dinner and can shower if they want. In the morning, they have breakfast, and volunteers send them off with a sack lunch by 8 a.m.

The shelter has had its challenges, he said. A couple of men have been kicked out, and a couple were refused service because they had open warrants or were registered sex offenders.

From time to time, someone asks Benish if he thinks the shelter enables men to remain homeless.

That could be true in a couple of cases, he said. But for the most part, having food and a bed helps men break out of “survival mode,” he said. Several men who have stayed in the shelter have gotten jobs and their own apartments.

“We’re giving them the ability to move towards a normal life,” Benish said. “These folks are getting jobs. They’re getting clean, presentable, interviewable.”

Benish told the audience at Bethel Baptist on Thursday he wasn’t asking for money, just volunteers like the kids from St. John Vianney Parish School who held a fund-raiser to buy a spaghetti dinner from Italian House for the shelter’s guests.

Kids at Janesville Wesleyan made dinner one night this week. A stylist donated two and a half hours of her time to cut hair and trim beards.

The shelter will remain open through April, then take the summer to give volunteers time to regroup, work on procedures and visit shelters in other communities, Benish said.

Plans are to re-open Sept. 21. The task force is interested in finding permanent space, either as a shelter or a day center, Benish said.

Benish said the ministry will continue to benefit both the homeless men and the volunteers.

“People need to help. They want to help,” Benish said. “They feel good when they help.”

The churches

These Janesville churches have hosted the GIFTS task force shelter for homeless men since it opened Dec. 24:

-- St. John Vianney Catholic Church

-- Roxbury Church of Christ

-- Grace Community International

-- Trinity Episcopal Church

-- Bethel Baptist Church

-- Asbury United Methodist Church

-- St. Mary’s Catholic Church

-- Mount Zion United Methodist

-- Janesville Wesleyan Church

-- Faith Community Church

-- First Presbyterian Church—will host next week for the first time

These churches and groups have supplied volunteers for the shelter:

-- Potter’s Wheel, Janesville

-- Saunder’s Creek Community Church, Edgerton

-- Seventh Day Baptist Church, Milton

-- Emmanuel Free Methodist Church, Janesville

-- The Father’s House, Janesville

The men

As of Wednesday, the men’s homeless shelter rotating through Janesville churches had been open for 80 nights.

-- The shelter has hosted 53 different men.

-- Twenty-six men had stayed for one to nine nights.

-- Eight men had stayed for 10 to 19 nights.

-- Five men had stayed for 20 to 29 nights.

-- Fourteen men had stayed for more than 30 nights.

For more

The GIFTS Ministry welcomes churches or individuals who want to work at the shelter for homeless men rotating through churches in Janesville. Janesville Wesleyan Church, 967 Benton Ave., Janesville, is hosting the shelter this week. Next week First Presbyterian, 17 N. Jackson St., Janesville, will take a turn.

To learn more or volunteer, call Paul Benish at (608) 751-7848.