There are less than 20 days until Christmas, but there\u2019s a $20,000 fire sprinkler bill on Glory Hole Director Mariya Lovishchuk\u2019s desk, and the first floor of the shelter has a usual crowd of about 20 people waiting for lunch. It doesn\u2019t quite feel like the most wonderful time of the year.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is definitely, for us, the hardest, most depressing time,\u201d Lovishchuk said, adding there is no other way to talk about the Glory Hole in December except bluntly.<\/p>\n
Lovishchuk said the Glory Hole, an emergency shelter and soup kitchen, is $60,000 in the hole and needs to do something fast before they are forced to dip into reserve funds.<\/p>\n
This time of the year is already a difficult one for shelter patrons \u2014 people suffer more and have greater needs as it gets colder \u2014 and volunteers do what they can to make sure everyone has at least one present so as not to feel disconnected during the holidays. But this looming budget deficit has Lovishchuk wondering what else could go wrong.<\/p>\n
Although it isn\u2019t atypical for the shelter to see some sort of deficit as December approaches \u2014 Lovishchuk said end-of-the-year donations are highly counted on \u2014 this year\u2019s hole was made deeper by pains from last year after a pipe burst and the building experienced extensive flooding.<\/p>\n
Insurance didn\u2019t cover it all, but the shelter managed to bounce back, Lovishchuk said. Then there\u2019s the reduction in grant funding for social services statewide that has affected several community charities.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s just so much more dire need all around,\u201d Lovishchuk said.<\/p>\n
Although Lovishchuk said this year there hasn\u2019t been an in-house disaster, there was fundraising for Housing First, a project to provide housing for vulnerable, chronically homeless individuals without requiring they quit drinking.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s the first project of it\u2019s kind in Juneau and it has required raising several million dollars. <\/p>\n
It\u2019s a drain on the community to ask for help with two separate homeless projects, Lovishchuk said, but if the Housing First project isn\u2019t funded now, it might never come to fruition.<\/p>\n
\u201cI really think we need to build it now,\u201d Lovishchuk said. \u201cThere\u2019s not going to be a chance to build it later with the state budget crisis.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lovishchuk said the kind of sacrifices the shelter could make down the road, assuming the deficit isn\u2019t addressed, are staff cuts. But the shelter already \u201cdoes the maximum with the minimum,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n
The only staff position is held by housing specialist Trevor Kellar. His role is vital to the shelter\u2019s mission of not just helping patrons get by day to day, but finding a permanent place in the community. Kellar said in the last year he has found permanent housing for 30 patrons by working with other community organizations.<\/p>\n
Lovishchuk said Kellar\u2019s role is grant-funded as of now. Making sure things stay as they are means not having to cut into reserves.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have zero wiggle room,\u201d Lovishchuk said. \u201cRight now we do breakfast, lunch and dinner. Are we are going to not do lunch and breakfast? Are we only going to dinner? Right now we\u2019re open 24\/7. Are we going to continue to be open 24\/7? Those are the kind of decisions that we would have to make if we drain the operating reserve.\u201d<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a scary feeling and it\u2019s perennial, wondering if the shelter will have enough to tend to everyone\u2019s needs, Lovishchuk said. To help ease this struggle the board has created a development committee to track funding year-round. The goal is to not wait until the end of the year for a last-minute save that might not come.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf we don\u2019t (resolve this deficit), we\u2019d have to draw into our rainy day reserve, which I hope we don\u2019t have to because I don\u2019t think this is the rainiest day,\u201d Lovishchuk said. \u201cI think more of a rainy day is coming in the near future. It\u2019s only going to get bleaker.\u201d<\/p>\n
To learn more about the Glory Hole Shelter\u2019s needs, visit feedjuneau.org, call 586-4159 or visit 247 S. Franklin St.<\/p>\n
\u2022 Contact reporter Paula Ann Solis at 523-2272 or at paula.solis@juneauempire.com.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
There are less than 20 days until Christmas, but there\u2019s a $20,000 fire sprinkler bill on Glory Hole Director Mariya Lovishchuk\u2019s desk, and the first floor of the shelter has a usual crowd of about 20 people waiting for lunch. It doesn\u2019t quite feel like the most wonderful time of the year. \u201cThis is definitely, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":107,"featured_media":8735,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_stopmodifiedupdate":false,"_modified_date":"","wds_primary_category":4,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[75],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-8734","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-local-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8734","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/107"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8734"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8734\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8735"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8734"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8734"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8734"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=8734"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}