UGM: The Men's Mission

Revised: January 2019

By Sarah Owens and Michael Livingston

Michael Kerrigone, UGM's Food Svces Mgr, and Dessert

Every month, housing and homeless services providers gather at the Union Gospel Mission downtown for an early lunch and networking, courtesy UGM and the Salem Housing Authority, whose staff plan and facilitate each meeting.  You don't have to be a provider to be welcome at the meeting, you just have to be interested in the work being done on homelessness, housing and social services. 

Mostly, however, those who attend are at the level of caseworkers (direct providers, not management).  As someone we know put it, "They come looking to find that one resource or referral that will prevent their having to tell a client, 'I'm sorry, I don't have anything for you.'"

Someone's always signed up to give a presentation.  Usually, the presentation consists of a provider talking about their program.  Perhaps oddly, it's rarely been someone from UGM.  UGM's kind of like your dad.  Been around since 1953.  Always there when you need him, so you take him for granted, as they say.  Rarely occurs to you to ask, you know, as if you're interested, whether he's worried about anything, or wishes his life had turned out differently.  He'd just say, "No."  So, we were pleased to learn that Simon Sandusky, Guest Services Manager for the Men's Mission, and Danial Ficek, Program Manager at the Men's Mission, were going to be speaking at the July meeting of the Emergency Housing Network.  We were so pleased, in fact, that we asked Simon and Dan if they would agree to be interviewed on Willamette Wakeup, which they did, and you can listen to the podcasts of those interviews here (Danial) and here (Simon).  Danial and Simon have since left UGM for new opportunities.

UGM circa 1953.  This and all photos below from UGM's FB page

Most locals know that the UGM's Men's Mission serves three meals a day, seven days a week.  (That's about 300 meals each day in summer, and about 500 in the winter.)  Everyone is welcome, whether or not enrolled in a  program.  Likewise, there are showers and clothing vouchers available for anyone who needs them, as well as lodging.  There are even trained volunteers providing haircuts and foot care.

All guests staying overnight go through a basic intake process, which is usually followed by a more detailed assessment of needs with a case manager.  Guests may, if they wish, opt into one of three programs.  The two more basic programs are called "Transitions", for men who are seeking housing and employment, but may need assistance with something like replacing identification papers, and "Supportive Services", for men with a physical or mental disability who are seeking housing and need assistance obtaining benefits, finding housing, etc.  In the past year, 39 men in the Transitions program secured housing, and 79 secured employment, while 31 in the Supportive Services program secured housing.

Just asking for help getting an ID can be a struggle, Simon told us.  Entering a controlled environment, having to identify a need, those simple acts require some degree of trust, which, as we have learned, the homeless brain has trouble with.  It takes a lot of reassurance and encouragement, which of course staff do their best to provide.

Religious observance is not required to receive any of the services, or to participate in any of the programs, but, to some degree, guests do have to tolerate the promotion of Christianity as a model of healing, which could be difficult for some.  The third program in particular, called the New Life Fellowship, is bible-based, and participants are asked to attend chapel a couple of times a week.  They are not, however, required to do so.  "They can graduate our program and not believe in God at all", Simon told us.  Think of the bible- or Christ-based approach as describing the model employed by staff, rather than a set of beliefs guests are required to adopt. 

Danial manages the New Life Fellowship program.  "I hesitate to call it a drug and alcohol program.  We deal with a lot of different issues with our clients.  Anything from drug and alcohol addiction, [to] mental illness, [to] compulsive behaviors -- anything that is really life-debilitating and has brought them to our doors."  The program has four phases, beginning with the candidate phase, when the individual is what Danial describes as "broken, open and desperate."

Before                                         After

Danial tries to help people see themselves accurately through counseling.  "Healthy people do not walk through the doors of a mission", he says.  The men in his program come to him "drenched in shame", and he tries to help them   understand its true nature.  "I don't say overcome", he says, because that's not possible, but he can help them understand that their past, whatever they might have done, need not define who they are as individuals.  But first, he wants them to understand how desperate their situation is.  Then, through  counseling, begin to build a trusting relationship.  In addition to understanding shame, the  counseling involves looking at  traumatic moments in the person's life, while attempting to integrate principles of psychology and theology.  "If the psychology fits scripture, we use it", Danial says.  

Phase two covers beliefs and values.  Most programs do not tell participants their beliefs are wrong, Danial says, but in the New Life Fellowship, they do.  He says this is the point at which many people leave.  One individual, about ready to graduate, left six times before finally making it through the program.

Phase three is the basic transitions program, where an individual is looking for work, but still participating in the counseling program.  Phase four begins when the person becomes employed or enrolled in an education program.  These phases involve an assessment by UGM's learning center instructor, Dave Ramsey's "Financial Peace" curriculum, career counseling and mentoring, which Danial identifies as an essential program component.  "The key to success is in your relationships with other people."  

Twenty-four percent of NLF program participants complete the program (the national UGM rate is 18%), however,  about 11% of local NLF graduates do return to homelessness.  Those numbers may be discouraging to the wider society, Danial says, "but it's not to me...What keeps me going is I look at the individual in the chair in front of me, and I get to know that person, and my goal is to help that person.  When he gets up and leaves, I look at the next one."  The program does not try to force change.  It does offer an opportunity to change.

In the past year ending July 30, the Mission sheltered 646 guests, and that number would have been substantially higher had the Fire Marshall not reduced their maximum occupancy last December to 213 from 330-380.  (At the time of the July meeting, the Mission had about 160 guests.)  The Mission is hoping that recent upgrades to the fire alarm system will allow the Fire Marshall to increase its occupancy rate by another 100 (to 313).

Three years ago, UGM's then-CEO Mike Rideout told CANDO about plans to move the Mission north to 885 Commercial Street NE, where its store and admin offices are located.  He explained that the building(s) they were in (and are still in, today) had structural problems that made renovation extremely difficult, to the point of not being feasible.  He said they'd worked for several years with City Planning staff and the then-Mayor, Anna Peterson, to develop a plan acceptable to the City, and that they were in the middle of a capital campaign to fund the move.  At that time (July 2014), the campaign was expected to take 18 to 24 months.  The following December, Rideout resigned, and the capital campaign fizzled.  It took the UGM board almost 18 months to bring in new leadership, but before the new leadership could get things moving on the capital campaign, the new leadership resigned.

That was last June, and the board have decided not to wait for new leadership to crank up the capital campaign.  The need is just too great, and they can't wait any longer to get started.

UGM's has already received contributions from regular donors toward the new Mission, but they now need the help of the entire community.  They estimate the new Mission will cost between $11M and and $13M to build, and they hope to start construction within three years.  Donations to the capital campaign can be made electronically at this page by noting the contribution is intended to help build the new Mission.