LOUISVILLE, Ky. — In only four weeks, leaders at Hope Village, Louisville’s outdoor shelter and resource center, have seen many success stories.
Setting up a canopy during a rain shower isn’t exactly pleasant, but Angel Todd says this is exactly where she wants to be. Outside.
“We are in the midst of the elements, as you can see today, with the wind and the rain. We are here with our residents,” Todd tells Spectrum News 1.
Todd is the Director of Operations of the Hope Buss, named by Louisville Metro Government as the lead operator of the Hope Village, which is described as a “safe outdoor space,” for houseless residents. The mission of Hope Village is to provide safe, stable shelter while connecting residents with service providers and a lot more.
They select residents of Hope Village through a referral process.
“It allows other service providers to come and find people. You know they are here so they can come and check in every week as we progressively help them with whatever goals they have,” Todd explains.
While living at Hope Village, residents begin obtaining health insurance, connecting with the Veterans Administration if they are veterans, getting an I.D. and searching for employment. For many, the goal could transition out of homelessness into stable long-term housing.
And for Hope Village to offer wrap-around services, it needs a lot of support and people are willing to give as clear from Rebecca Harbin dropping off several boxes of donations in the rain.
“I’m actually a social worker myself. I work with children but I have many homeless clients over the years, so this is a big deal and we have to meet people where they are and not put them in our box,” Harbin tells Spectrum News 1.
Stachelle Bussey is the Executive Director of Hope Buss the operator of Hope Village (Spectrum News 1/Jonathon Gregg)
Hope Village currently has 40 residents with a capacity of 50. Several residents are in the process or already have a job, but transportation is a challenge. Hope Village is asking for a person or organization to donate a passenger van.
“A lot of our residents have bikes but on days like this when you got to get to work, think about how deterring it is… because you’ve got to ride your bike in the rain. What our job right now is to simply give them every resource that we can give them to help make them successful,” Stachelle Bussey says.
Bussey is the executive director and says as much as possible they want to give residents autonomy and the ability to make their own decisions, which is why employment and a van to get residents around can be crucial.
“We want to be able to assist them in building their own autonomy, helping them to learn how to sustain on their own and that’s why we need it.”
To date, over 100 people have stayed at Hope Village and, according to Todd, the success stories are already mounting.
“Donation Day” is every Thursday from 10 a.m.to 1 p.m. and 4 p.m. to 8 p.m.