LOUISVILLE, Ky. — The Homeless Outreach Program is a joint effort between The Healing Place and Louisville Metro to assist the homeless population. The Healing Place will work with community resources like Coalition for the Homeless to provide services to individuals.

What You Need To Know

  • Homeless Outreach Program to recidivism rate of horseless individuals in our community

  • Clients in the program can stay at The Healing Place up to a year

  • The Homeless Outreach Program provides funding for up to 12 beds

  • The beds for the pilot program have been filled since week 5

The pilot program was launched in Sept. with one of their first clients, Walter Manford. Manford can usually be found in room 215 of The Healing Place, reading in his room or playing phone games but just a few months ago that wasn’t the case.

Manford spent the last 10 years facing homelessness after losing his home and his business collapsing.

“Underneath the vydock for 10 years. A month here and a month there at one of the shelters but generally underneath the vydock sometimes in a tent sometimes not,” Manford said.

Manford says thanks to the Homeless Outreach program he was able to get off the streets and become a client in the pilot program.

The Healing place provides individuals with access to a variety of daily services including meals, showers, clothing, hygiene items, and recovery services. 

“It's still sinking in, you're sitting here thinking 'Wow.' Especially when you go to bed and you get underneath the covers instead of a sleeping bag, if you're lucky enough to have a sleeping bag and so it's nice,” Manford said.

The program provides funding for up to 12 beds between men and women and those individuals can stay up to a year. The beds have been filled for the pilot program since week 5.

“We want to decrease the recidivism rate of people that are returning to the streets, we want to house them and provide them with the resources and support that they need to be successful and transition to independence and independent living,” Courtney Weisshaupt, detox manager for The Healing Place said.

Clients in the program work with a case manager and peer support specialists that help them establish goals and plans to meet their needs.

“We're getting them to access community resources that they might not have been able to access on their own on a daily basis,” Weisshaupt said. “We've seen clients get employment, get the documentation they even need to get employment so it's going really well.”

A safe and consistent place to live, something Manford says he’s never seen before in his 10 years of facing homelessness.

“Just coming home to a door that has a lock on it, a bed, a kitchen, oh God I miss a kitchen, and that will keep me happy for the rest of my life,” Manford said. “So if they can help me and I can't help myself get that far that'll be something nice.”

Manford says he hopes to establish a part-time job and eventually get a place of his own.

If you would like to purchase items needed by clients in the Homeless Outreach Program visit their website.

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