This is an inspirational talk with two guests of Bethany House. Sheila and Rolandis explain how a life-threatening car crash landed them on the streets.
Immediate shelter services is available.
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Cincinnati, OH 45237
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Episode Transcript
This week on iHeart SENSEI.
Speaker 2 (00:02):
Who do you count on to help put the broken
pieces of your life back together after a devastating car crash?
Speaker 1 (00:10):
Who can you count on right now?
Speaker 2 (00:11):
If you lose your job, you can't pay your overpriced
housing bill, and you're forced out into the street. It
happened to my guest today.
Speaker 3 (00:20):
I was a shipping supervisor for seven years for a
company in Loveland during the time of the accident, So
of course I lost my job. FMLA ran out shorts
account exhausted that then it came to the point of
what do we do now? So and I had to
put my.
Speaker 4 (00:39):
Daughter in my fiance in the car, and I had
to sleep in the hallway because it just wasn't enough
home for us.
Speaker 3 (00:46):
And it's been a really tough role.
Speaker 2 (00:49):
This scenario played out right here in Cincinnati. In fact,
it happens every day, financial setbacks pushing people to make
difficult choices. Today, you'll meet my guests, Sheila and Orlandez
and find out what happened to them and who they
were able to turn to to help them get out
of his car, off the hallway floor, and back into
a safe space where they could begin to rebuild their
(01:10):
lives after a split second auto accident.
Speaker 1 (01:13):
Nearly killed them.
Speaker 2 (01:14):
And later we are looking at the holiday season with
less money, and my guest today in the second half
of the show, we'll share with you how you can
save money and get out of town for the holidays,
even at the last minute, to meet up with family
or just get away from the stress. Steve Gilda directs
AARP travel department. We'll talk to him in just a bit.
Speaker 1 (01:34):
Now on iHeart Sinsey with Sandy Collins.
Speaker 2 (01:39):
Welcome to iheartsincy On Sandy Collins, and today we have
some great guests from Bethany House. Every day, this organization
supports women, children and families who are experiencing homelessness and
housing insecurity right here in the Tri State.
Speaker 1 (01:54):
Now.
Speaker 2 (01:54):
They say that behind every family they serve, there's a
story of strength, resilience, and hope. Through comprehensive services that
they provide, including emergency shelter, family support programs, homelessness prevention,
and rapid rehousing, Bethany Houses providing families here in the
Tri State with the tools that they need to rebuild
their lives and achieve long term self sufficiency. So let's
(02:18):
talk to those folks today. We've got Megan Park here.
She is the marketing and special events manager from Bethany House,
and her guests are and my guest too, Sheila and Rolandis.
And Sheila is a former shelter resident at Bethany House,
and we're going to get to hear her story.
Speaker 1 (02:35):
As well today too.
Speaker 2 (02:35):
So Megan and Sheila and Orlandis, welcome to iHeart since
you today.
Speaker 3 (02:40):
Hello, Thank you.
Speaker 1 (02:41):
Are y'all staying warm?
Speaker 5 (02:44):
Oh yeah, stay warm?
Speaker 6 (02:46):
You don't.
Speaker 2 (02:47):
You don't work in this studio. This is refrigerator studio here.
It's probably sixty five degrees in here right now, so
I won't be yawning and getting sleepy, all right. So Megan,
we're going to start with you about Bethany House. We've
spoken before, but let's recap a little bit. What is
Bethany House, How did it come to be? And how
(03:08):
long have you guys been around.
Speaker 6 (03:11):
We have been around for forty two years now. We
were started by sisters of charity. Two sisters saw a
need and originally it started just with women and children
and then has evolved to families. So single fathers with children,
fathers and mothers with children. We take everybody. The only
(03:32):
requirement is that there are children under.
Speaker 3 (03:33):
The age of eighteen.
Speaker 6 (03:34):
So any given day we have about one hundred children
under our roof. We can house forty three families at
a time. We have forty three bedrooms here at our
bond Hill building, which was built and we moved into
only three years ago.
Speaker 1 (03:47):
Oh wow, so you're is that the one location in
bond Hill.
Speaker 6 (03:52):
It's one location. We used to have seven locations all
around the city, a house here, a house there, but
then the services weren't consistent. There was a lot of
that had to happen, so we put them all together
under one roof. And so now we have family services,
We have our housing department, we have the shelter, we
have the administrative offices all in one building.
Speaker 1 (04:10):
And where is that in Bondtel Right.
Speaker 6 (04:12):
On Reading Road, just north of the lateral.
Speaker 2 (04:15):
Okay, because I drive there all the time and I'm
not sure I've even noticed it, So now I'll have
to take a look when I do that. So you
are handling the homelessness problem in every stage. Tell me
a little bit about how you approach the emergency shelter
concept at the very beginning, and then how do you
transition people into more permanent and stable housing.
Speaker 6 (04:40):
Well, actually the very beginning is homelessness prevention. The best
way to prevent homelessness is to keep people in their homes.
And so we have our housing department, We have case
managers who do specifically that if people are falling behind
in rent or falling behind in utilities, we have support
to keep people in their homes. That doesn't always work,
So then we have the emergency shelter and people with
(05:03):
children outside they get they come in right away, Like
we don't want children sleeping in cars, sleeping on streets.
So there is a long line unfortunately that we can't
serve everybody. We serve maybe fourteen percent of the people
who need help who call in for help. There's a
central access point phone number which is where anyone needing
help calls into and that from there people get put
(05:28):
where they belong. Like single men would go to this shelter,
single women go to this shelter. Families would come to us,
things like that. Let's take that number right now, five
one three three eight one safe safe.
Speaker 2 (05:40):
All right, remember that number, folks, five one three three
eight one safe. We will repeat that in just a
little bit, But right now, I do want to talk
to Sheila. She's a former shelter resident at Bethany House.
And Sheila, you brought your better half Orlandis with you.
Let's talk about your experience at Bethany House. When were
you finding yourself needing their services.
Speaker 5 (06:04):
Well, after our core accident and things going to start
going downhill, he decided to call the Bethany House. I mean,
I didn't know nothing about it. He did, and you know,
we had we didn't really have nowhere to go. We
were staying in the car, and he had got really
bad for us, so he started calling the hotline and
(06:28):
next thing you know, they put us in a hotel.
And then after that they put us we was able
to get a room. They had room for us, so
we was able to come to the Bethany House and
that's how we ended up meeting the Bethany House. And
so after that it was just like a life saving
thing for us. It was a change because you know,
(06:49):
if you have never been homeless, you want to understand,
but being homeless is real different. But it's also a
good thing because you being a place where you not alone.
It's other people that's going through the same thing. And
it was a great experience for us. I love to hear,
we love to hear they have good programs, they have.
Speaker 3 (07:12):
Things for kids to do.
Speaker 5 (07:13):
So I mean, it's a very good support system for
you and so many ways.
Speaker 2 (07:20):
I'm gonna ask Orlandi's how did you hear about Bethany House?
Speaker 3 (07:24):
Well, I heard about the Bethany House actually through the
cap line and I was referred to the capline from
Project Connect. Project Connected is the one initiated everything. They
put us in a hotel for five days, and on
the fifth day we actually got a call from the
Bethany House saying that they had they had a room
(07:45):
available for us to alleviate the gap between the hotel
and homelessness. Again, so they called us on our fifth
day when we were at the hotel and called us
and told us they wanted to see us at three
o'clock that same day.
Speaker 2 (08:00):
So you packed your bags and took off, and yes, ma'am,
the rest is history. It must be so unsettling, you know,
we talk about these serious issues all the time, but
if you just take a minute and think about all
of a sudden, you can't stay in your house anymore,
and now you.
Speaker 1 (08:18):
Really don't have anywhere to go.
Speaker 2 (08:19):
You got friends, you know, but you can't really intrude
and all these things. And then to be in the
hotel you're relieved, and then on the fifth day you
still don't know what's going to happen tomorrow.
Speaker 1 (08:30):
That is really, really tough.
Speaker 2 (08:32):
How did they help you at Bethany House handle some
of that emotional trauma that you went through?
Speaker 3 (08:39):
Well, I mean they connect me with GCB. Yeah, Greater
Cincinnati Behavioral Health, which I'm still currently a member there.
But they opened up so many doors as far as counseling,
mental health support, mental health, nursing. They just did so much.
Speaker 2 (09:00):
Yeah, there's a lot of a lot of good people
in this town that want to help and take care
of folks. So, Megan, let's talk about how many people
that kneed your services. You've found it in eighty three
and I see, you know five digits, you know, thirty
nine thousand people, thirty nine thousand people, twenty five thousand kids.
(09:25):
And Megan, I know you must have seen the article
about how CPS is now designating a lot so that
the families that are homeless, those kids can stay safe
in this lot and sleep, so the kids can go
to school, and I was so blown away at that
(09:46):
concept and then they said, oh, it's only I think
it was. And I'm so glad that they're doing it.
But it's so horrible that it's necessary, and it's like
ten cars and there's not enough room for everybody else.
Tell us about that situation. There's so many children that
are homeless. What is your experience there.
Speaker 6 (10:06):
It used to be that, you know, you'd hear people
it's so terrible that children are sleeping in cars, And
now it's like relief that there's a car for children
to sleep in. And I just feel like that speaks
so broadly to where we are right now, that we're
grateful that children have cars to sleep.
Speaker 5 (10:22):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (10:23):
Baby slept in the car and I slept in the hallway. Actually.
Speaker 5 (10:27):
Yeah, So it's pretty tough, but you know, God is good, Yes,
God is good. In this journey right here that we
was on was an excellent journey, fuzz and it taught
us a lot of things about everything. And thanks to
the Bethany House. Yes in our case, manager Ms Tish,
we love them, we love them, Yes we do. Anybody
(10:49):
that's in need that they need any help, This is
a great place to be it really is.
Speaker 6 (10:54):
I don't want to speak your story, but they were
in a very serious car accident and that's how they
lost their home. I mean, they had a job, they
were working, they all the things, and it was this
terrible accident in the state of our medical system that
brought them here.
Speaker 2 (11:13):
Most people who have bankruptcies are doing it because of
medical issues, and that can affect anybody anywhere, anytime, any
economic level.
Speaker 1 (11:22):
That's a very scary thing. And now with healthcare.
Speaker 2 (11:25):
Being threatened for millions of folks, you know, now you're
talking personal bankruptcies and then the government's going to have
to pay for those folks anyway when they have to
go to the hospital.
Speaker 1 (11:34):
So it doesn't make sense.
Speaker 3 (11:36):
Yeah, no, it doesn't. It doesn't.
Speaker 6 (11:39):
And it just speaks to like one thing, right, one
thing can take you down a road you never thought
you'd be downright, So, bethany House is trying to help
in every way we can't. Oh, so the last thing
we do with housing, So when they were ready, we
help them find housing. We help them. You can speak
better on that, but our goal is to get everybody
into secure housing that they can afford for the long term,
(12:02):
because we don't want them back in two years. You know,
we need them to be able to stay in their
secure housing.
Speaker 2 (12:09):
Megan, what do you do when you see someone who
is apparently chronically homeless and you drive home every night
from work and you look and to see this wonderful
gentleman laying in a foyer of a building, laying on
concrete with his blankets, and it's thirty one degrees outside,
(12:32):
And I'm thinking, oh, am I telling my story?
Speaker 1 (12:34):
Yes I am. And I'm thinking somebody that business has
had to.
Speaker 2 (12:38):
Deal with this guy. He's here all the time. It's
not like no one's trying to help me. What do
you do in that situation? How can you reach out
and help?
Speaker 1 (12:46):
Or should you?
Speaker 6 (12:48):
There is an app and a phone number that strategies
to end homelessness has called street Reach and I have
done that many times. You can approach the person and
ask if they need help. You can reach out to
this app right away and just say I've seen this
person on you know, this corner, this exchange wherever, give
the information for where they are and they will send
(13:09):
caseworkers out to help.
Speaker 3 (13:12):
It is.
Speaker 6 (13:13):
It's such a heartbreaking experience to see that and not
know what to do. I mean, I know a lot
of people carry sandwiches and baggies in their car or
crackers in their car and hand things.
Speaker 1 (13:25):
Out, you do.
Speaker 2 (13:27):
You see it a lot in the city, in the
central business district, but this is suburban stuff and you're like,
you know, you just feel helpless, and it's good to
know that. So this is a street reach app and
you can contact them. And do you recommend you go
up to somebody and ask them if they need help
first or just go ahead and call, because again, you know,
(13:49):
you don't want to impose, but you also don't want
to ignore.
Speaker 6 (13:53):
Acknowledging people is never bad, you know, like making eye contact,
saying hello, I mean, just seeing the human and another
person is huge. Your ability to help from that point
on is each individual's person's call. But I do think
this app is a great thing to have. You can
download it on your phone. It's really easy.
Speaker 1 (14:14):
All right, let's give that one more time. It is street.
Speaker 6 (14:17):
Reach street Reach.
Speaker 2 (14:20):
Yes, you get that through the app store. Apparently the
number four Bethany House. In case you missed it all,
I'll give it to you again in a little bit
that it's five one three three eight one safe Safe.
I'm speaking today with a special events manager and marketing
manager at Bethany House Services, and that's Megan Park along
with Sheila and Orlandis who have sung the praises of
(14:43):
this place having taken care of them after your accident,
I do got to follow up about your accident.
Speaker 1 (14:49):
Is everybody okay? Are you getting things worked out?
Speaker 3 (14:53):
Yes? Well, we got to hate by a fire truck
in twenty twenty three in January fi It was the
fifth day of the new year. So my neck and
my back was broken and her whole right side had
to be replaced. Femur, bone, kneecap, she and four arm
it all had to be replaced. So you know, over
(15:17):
the course of time, yes, we're fine.
Speaker 1 (15:20):
But it was a hard road.
Speaker 3 (15:22):
It was a very hard I was a shipping supervisor
for seven years for a company in Loveland during the
time of the accident, so of course I lost some job.
F M l A ran out Sharp's account exhausted that
then it came to the point of where what do
we do now? So the only thing we.
Speaker 4 (15:44):
Had left to do was to take our car, and
I had to put my daughter in my my fiance
in the car, and I had to sleep in the
hallway because it just wasn't enough room for us. And
it's been a it's been a really tough but we
all wants to put them phone calls in and it
happens so automatic, like the chain links just connected so fast.
Speaker 3 (16:09):
Then it helped ease the mental pain. You know, the
mental pain was more exhausting than the physical pain, but
we would deal with both at the same time, if
that makes any.
Speaker 2 (16:18):
Sense, Megaan, you hear that story a lot. I would
imagine people need help. Do you have anything you want
to say this to folks who are in this situation,
either before they become homeless or they maybe know someone
who is and needs this help. But what do you
want to say to folks before we wrap up here?
Speaker 6 (16:38):
I would say, keep asking for help. There are a
lot of resources out there. It might seem that they're
hard to find, but there's so many services in this city.
Like you said, this is a very generous city who
wants to make sure it's residents are okay. So just
keep asking and asking and asking, and you will find
the right path to the right services that you need.
(17:00):
And it may not be like instantaneous. Five days probably
spelt like the longest five days of your life. You
look back and it's five days, but when you're in
the middle of it, it's like, how long will this
go on? So don't lose hope. The other thing I
learned when I talk to people who are in our
shelter is like they just say, don't lose hope, Like
keep at it, keep at it, keep at it, and
don't host.
Speaker 5 (17:20):
Trust the process with God because you know you don't
put you in positions for no reason. So this you know, no,
and don't be scared to call the aline if it
will help you out and along.
Speaker 6 (17:31):
And you might have to call multiple times unfortunately, but.
Speaker 4 (17:34):
Just keep at it.
Speaker 1 (17:35):
And is that because it's busy.
Speaker 6 (17:37):
Because it's busy and we don't have somebody on it
twenty four hours a day unfortunately.
Speaker 2 (17:42):
Yeah, yeah, you'll get you through to somebody if you
call that number. It's five one, three three eight one
safe and that is Bethany House Services, Magan Park, Sheila
and Orlandis. Thanks for telling the story today. Thanks for
sharing this important information. If we just help one person,
one family, of course, it's it's worth the time. But
thank you both so much, and I'm so glad to
(18:03):
see both of you are doing better.
Speaker 1 (18:06):
Thank you, thank you for having us so much.
Speaker 2 (18:10):
You can reach your Bethany House services at this number
five one three three eight one safe five one three
three eight one safe and that at Megan talked about
street Reach. I just downloaded it myself. An easy way
to help those folks that find themselves on the streets
coming up. How to get away for the holiday on
(18:32):
a smaller budget this year.
Speaker 1 (18:35):
This is iHeart Cincy.
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