After growing up in Grandville, Mich., and living in Calvinâs residence halls, Tami VandenBerg, a â97 Calvin College graduate, moved to Eastown, the folksy neighborhood surrounding Lake and Wealthy Streets in Grand Rapids. She was attracted to the historic businesses and close sense of community. It was home.
Other than a year-long stint as an AmeriCorps volunteer in Lafayette, La., VandenBerg has been an Eastown resident ever since. Her sense of âhomeâ has led to advocacy for people who are homeless.
âYou canât deal with anything in your life if you donât have a place to live,â she said.
After earning an English degree at Calvin under the tutelage of favorite professors such as Jim Vanden Bosch, Susan Felch, and the late Lionel Basney, VandenBerg began writing essays and stories. She found herself drawn to âpeople on the fringes.â
âI began to see that much of the good that social workers and counselors tried to do for homeless folks was wasted due to inadequate or no housing,â she said. âHow do you effectively coach someone who has walked around all night with no place to go, who falls asleep on the couch in the middle of a conversation?â
VandenBerg sent her rĂ©sumĂ© to any office or agency in Grand Rapids that had âhomelessâ in the name or institutional description. She was hired by the Salvation Army to work in its Community Rebuilders program.
She noticed that as long as people were homeless, it was exceedingly hard to deal with behavioral issues. She concluded that rental supplements were more effective than spending on social services.
âIf you ask [people who are] homeless what they need, they will say rent far more than any other thing,â she said.
VandenBerg left Community Rebuilders, buying an abandoned building and turning it into the successful Meanwhile Barânow a staple of the vibrant Wealthy Street arts and business corridor.
That venture led to the even larger Pyramid Scheme music club on Commerce Street in downtown Grand Rapids--again, a positive business venture as well as an artistic contributor to the cityâs cultural reemergence.
The challenges of people who are homeless were never far from VandenBergâs mind. She served on the board of Well House, a small nonprofit that provides safe and affordable housing. After the previous director retired, VandenBerg agreed to take the reins. She has since turned the organization into a vibrant, change-making nonprofit.
âWe have six houses nowâsoon weâll have sevenâin addition to a number of lots for future expansion,â she said.
When Well House first reopened, there were 143 applications for 20 rooms. Well House takes in persons not taken in by shelters or other agenciesâpeople coming out of jail or who are are addicted or live with mental illness. In the years since the organization has expanded, 87 percent of Well House residents have not become homeless again.
âNow,â she said, people who are homeless âare actually being courted by neighborhoodsâthey want us to establish a Well House where they live. What was once boarded up and dangerous is now positive and full of life.â
About the Author
Michael Van Denend, Calvin College