Program areas at DRMM
Transitional housing: prisoner re-entry housing for men. The target populations for this program are single men who are either leaving a Michigan department of corrections facility or the wayne county jail and currently experiencing homelessness. Our role is to help these returning citizens from state prisons and local jails to quickly transition to employment and housing so that they can successfully remain out of jail or prison in the future. This year this program has served 145 guests, 70% of those successfully completed the program. The program houses up to 30 men. All guests are helped with employment, housing, medical and mental health and other needs. Prisoner re-entry housing for women. The program is designed to assist returning female citizens from the Michigan department of corrections (mdoc) with their transition to independent living. Aside from providing food and shelter, drmm staff assist guests with the tools necessary to empower them to obtain employment and independent housing. Drmm provided services for 20 female returning citizens: 14 guests completed the program successfully and placed in long term housing. All guests were helped with employment, housing, medical and mental health and other needs. Permanent housing: drmm's permanent housing for disabled homeless people provided housing and social services to 102 single, chronically homeless adults. To qualify the household must have either a chronically homeless family member or a disabled homeless family member. They receive permanent supportive housing for as long as they need or until they are able to move to other housing of their choice. Based on their personal plan (which is designed to help them maintain income, needed services and housing), the following services are provided: mental health, medical and dental care, and substance abuse treatment and recovery services. Among those people we housed, were homeless veterans and people with mental illnesses or developmental disabilities. We helped 12 people find employment and 86 people received income from entitlement programs (such as state supplemental security income and food stamps) and helped 78% guests move from our permanent supportive housing program to community-based, independent housing. (b) another of our permanent housing programs, provided homes in residential neighborhoods to households headed by formerly homeless adults who were homeless despite the fact that they were employed. That program enables the families to live in a private home until they locate independent permanent housing or move.
Sub-acute detoxification and substance abuse treatment services: medical services include physical assessments of patients, medication monitoring, medical referrals to treatment, treatment for emergency health needs and sick call services. Counseling and referrals for substance abuse treatment, social services and other services are also provided. Addicted men and women (450 men and 102 women, including women with minor dependent children) received licensed and accredited residential substance abuse treatment services. Services include addiction and recovery treatment, case management, individual, group therapy and family counseling, linkage to job training and legal services, medical assessments and referrals, medication monitoring and sick call, psychological evaluations and treatment, and recovery services. Among them were (a) parolees and probationers with drug- or alcohol-related sentences referred by courts and probation agents. (b) senior citizens and (c) indigent men. Addicted people who do not meet guidelines for funding for treatment from either corrections programs or the health department and have no insurance are provided treatment through funds donated by individuals on our donor list.
Emergency food & shelter: more than 1,800 individuals were given overnight housing in the program year ending 2021, including homeless men, women and children from wayne and st. clair counties (267 homeless parents and their children, and individuals with severe mental illness and co-occurring substance use disorders. Three daily meals were provided to guests, three times daily and 365 days a year. Shelter programs including warming center services for people not able to access shelters and who needed shelter from the cold as well as beds and meals, emergency shelter services with case management and linkage to local permanent housing resources, and a modified therapeutic program for homeless people diagnosed with severe mental illness and co- occurring substance disorders. Every night we provide them a safe, warm place to stay, food, emotional and social support, clothing, showers, & linkage to mental health, health care, substance abuse treatment, and housing placement assistance. Our Detroit food distribution program provided food to over 1200 individuals (some on a weekly basis) and our lighthouse food bank in macomb county residents provided emergency food to more than 3500 people every month. Households consist of low income, disabled households including families with children and senior citizens.
Services for children and youth: over 2,800 children received christmas gifts from donors including new coats and winter gear and clothing items through a separate distribution of gifts prepared by drmm volunteers and provided by donors. At the wildwood ranch covid 19 continued to present great obstacles to designing opportunities for children and youth to engage in summer camping activities. During the summer of 2021, drmm scaled back our normal camping operations and offered only day camps for 10 weeks. Drmm were able to end the year having served 635 weeklong campers, along with 25 youth for horse lessons for 15 weeks and 230 retreat guests. Operations services: in addition to the services stated above, drmm provides free clothing, free food, juice, and milk, and provides transportation to thousands of individuals each year. Estimations of these services in the program year ending in 2021 are as follows: -200,000+ pieces of clothing -donated food product throughout the year is used in our residential programs and provided directly to low-income community members during weekly distribution events -over 5,224 volunteers donated hours, serving meals, providing clerical and admin support, providing skilled labor, and providing spiritual life to aid in drmm's work. Continuation of essential services during covid-19. Covid-19 infected both staff and guests at drmm sites. It was clear throughout Michigan, this virus deterred individuals from seeing shelter, entering treatment and utilizing other support services. Service delivery levels dropped. Necessitated by placing covid-19 protocols in place drmm had to improvise a new way of providing services. Following center for disease control (cdc) guidelines, we deployed preventive tools and strategies such as personal protection equipment (ppe), social distancing requirements and the use of telehealth services. Drmm provided a covid quarantine center servicing the homeless in the city of Detroit starting the beginning the fall of 2021. The purpose of the covid shelter was to provide medical services meeting quarantine standards for city of Detroit residents that are homeless and have no place to quarantine, it is an isolation site up to 10 days for singles and 16 days for families, based upon new center for disease control (cdc) guidelines drmm continues to struggle with the impact of the coronavirus (covid-19) with our guest and staff, even though drmm has never closed its doors. Drmm has embraced technology to assist in service delivery, but its essential services remain face-to-face and are provided 24 hours/7 days a week, and 365 days of the year. Covid has had its impact on guest and staff that contracted this insidious virus, but drmm continues the good fight to help those in need.