Message from the Executive Director
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Community affordable housing – Where are you?
Livable wage jobs – Are you hiring?
Public transportation – When will you arrive in more neighborhoods?
Homeless children and adults – We know where you are!
Neighbors and friends – What will we do to end homelessness & resolve poverty?
Two recently released reports on the state of housing in Virginia and across the US point to rising crises that require immediate and sustained attention. The Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies,
State of the Nation’s Housing 2018
, and the National Low Income Housing Coalition,
Out of Reach 2018
, both assert that housing is unaffordable for a great many working people across the nation.
People burdened by the cost of housing spend more than 30% of their income on it. In Fredericksburg, where 65% of the population are renters, the mean renter wage is $15.83/hour, or $32,926/year. Yet, the fair market rent for a one-bedroom apartment in Fredericksburg is $18,732/year — 57% of the mean renter’s salary. To truly afford it, one would have to earn $30.02/hour or $62,440/year. At $15.83 an hour, a Fredericksburg resident must work 76 hours a week to afford a one-bedroom unit at the fair market rate.
Another housing concern is the increasing length of time that homeless families and individuals spend in shelters as they await placement in HUD-sponsored housing. There is simply not enough affordable housing stock available.
While they are in our shelter, the Brisben Center offers homeless folks a variety of hand-up, strengths-based supports to help them regain their footing and formulate plans for sustainable futures. Residents learn strategies and skills, and plan for becoming sustainably re-housed: life skills, resume preparation, job searches, mock-interviews, referrals to mental health counseling, substance abuse recovery, and more. Soon to be offered by the Brisben Center and its partners are programs such as Mobility Mentoring, solar power workforce training, and health-based nutrition.
Well-run shelters, hand-up supports, livable wage jobs, accessible transportation, and community affordable housing are essential keys to ending homelessness and resolving poverty. Research and practice point us in some good directions. The question is, what will we as a community do to permanently end homelessness and sustainably resolve poverty?
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N. David Cooper
Executive Director
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Volunteer Rick Nehrboss
Rick Nehrboss
has volunteered as a job coach at the Center for four years.
The bulk of his time is spent helping residents write resumes, which often leads to wider conversations
. How does an applicant explain gaps in his employment record, for instance, or a criminal offense? “What did you want to do when you were young?” he asks. These discussions bring out the father in him.
Rick enjoys writing impressive resumes
and he tells the story of a resident who resisted him every step of the way. This man, who had been a restaurant manager, could not stand the self-promotion his resume required. Rick won in the end. As a result, the man was flown to Dallas to interview with a major restaurant chain — and ended up getting a job managing multiple restaurants.
Rick is retired from the Air Force and worked as a consultant for 18 years. After he moved to Fredericksburg from Northern Virginia, he looked around for places to volunteer and settled on Brisben.
“I don’t get a lot of feedback,” he said when asked if the resumes he writes ultimately lead to jobs. It is obvious, though, that
Rick enjoys doing what he can to help
. Like many of Brisben’s volunteers, he cannot articulate why he volunteers his time and expertise, other than that he feels like he has impact on the residents.. He just keeps coming back again and again.
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Meet Christian Zammas
Christian Zammas
was destitute when he entered the Brisben Center in 2016, but he left it revived and determined to get back on his feet. While scrambling for employment during his time at Brisben, he also took the time to meditate, read, attend NA meetings, reflect on what he wanted, and formulate a plan.
Today, as the co-owner of Katora Coffee, as a proud husband and father, as someone who is looking to give back to society –
he sees his time at Brisben as transformative
. “If this place wasn’t here, I wouldn’t be where I’m at.”
Reflecting on his past, he said,
“Everybody makes mistakes. But it’s whether you can learn from them and move forward.”
Taking personal responsibility for his situation and his life has been instrumental to his recovery. Still, Christian knows first-hand the systemic factors of homeless: the high cost of housing, insufficient wages, an exponential increase in the number of evictions, the trap of high cost hotel residencies.
From the standpoint of his own success, he pledges to help others achieve theirs, and
envisions a recovery farm-community where people can embrace healthy and meaningful lives
.
CLICK HERE
to watch a 5-minute video of Christian talking about his experience at the Brisben Center.
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A Proud Supporter of Brisben!
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On May 29,
Jennifer Lowe
, Ph.D., vice president for
EMPath
, gave a presentation at the Brisben Center on
Mobility Mentoring
, an evidence-based approach to adult mentoring that addresses the effects of stress on people struggling with poverty.
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Reps of
Gov. Northam, Rob Wittman, Bob Thomas, Germanna Community College, Mary Washington University, the Mayor’s Clean and Green Commission, and St. George’s Episcopal Church
's Environmental Stewardship Ministry met at Brisben to discuss installing
solar panels
at Brisben and Loisann’s Hope House.
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Brisben is exploring a nutrition program for children and adults to learn healthy food selection, preparation, consumption and storage. Some emerging partners include the
Virginia Cooperative Extension, American Heart Association, Kaiser Permanente, Mary Washington Health Care, and Spotsylvania County Public Schools
.
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On June 25 the Brisben board of directors and staff held its annual meeting. During the meeting current Brisben Center officers were unanimously voted in, as was new executive board member Jeanette Woodcock.
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