SALEM — One week before Christmas in 2007, Ron Trofenof was wading through deep snow late at night on his way to the Beverly police station.
Once married with a big house and a career as a draftsman, he was suddenly homeless. He had lost his apartment that day and watched helplessly as a truck drove away with all his belongings. Suddenly, it was dark outside, there was a storm raging and he had to find a place to live.
Beverly police drove him over the bridge to the Salem Mission. He made the ride, almost literally, in a state of shock.
"It didn't take that much to unravel what I had," he said.
Trofenof was familiar with Salem's homeless shelter when it was on Crombie Street. Ironically, he had volunteered there years earlier with a church group and had even made a donation.
"I had a little bit of a windfall" from an inheritance, he said.
For the first few nights in the shelter, Trofenof slept sitting at a table. Eventually, he got a bed, where he stayed for a few months.
Today, Trofenof, 49, is living in one of the 22 apartments the Salem Mission leases to the formerly homeless in two small apartment buildings it acquired when it bought the former St. Mary's Italian Church property on Margin Street.
The shelter staff has helped him get medical assistance and secure Social Security disability benefits, almost one-third of which go for rent.
"These people here really did save my life until I got squared away," Trofenof said, sitting on a bed in his small apartment.
Trofenof is a success story, the Salem Mission says, and one of the stories that gets lost in all the controversy swirling around the shelter's plans to convert the former St. Mary's Church into 20 studio apartments for the homeless.
Neighbors, city councilors and others in the community have spoken out strongly against the plans to use a church for housing. Many have also complained about problems caused by the presence of a homeless shelter in a city neighborhood.
At the same time, however, many of those same critics often praise the work of the Salem Mission. Whether they are just going through the motions, or being heartfelt, those critics concede that the shelter is doing "God's work."
A change in mission
Two years ago, when the new apartments opened, God's work changed directions.
The nonprofit agency no longer provides only a place to sleep and eat but now tries to place the homeless in permanent housing — with support services.
Counting its own apartments, they have moved 90 men and women into housing over the past 19 months, according to Salem Mission Executive Director Mark Cote.
A lot has to take place before a client is ready for housing, Cote said.
"The key to what we do here is case management," he said.
Each person who comes through the door is assigned a case manager, he said, who creates an individual service plan, sets long-term goals, secures medical services, helps the person find a source of income or a job, and then helps them look for housing.
The 90 individuals provided those services have gone into different kinds of housing around the North Shore and beyond, according to Mission staff.
"I think most of them are either in supportive housing or back with their families or in their own apartments," said Christine Cericola, the director of clinical services.
The Salem Mission got a big endorsement this summer when the North Shore Home Consortium, which is based in Peabody, awarded it $200,000 in federal funds for its new housing plans.
The switch in priorities from a shelter to a "housing first" agency also has the support of federal officials.
"They have made a big commitment to that shift, and I think it's a courageous commitment," said John O'Brien, New England regional coordinator for the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness.
"It's not that it's easy to run an emergency shelter, but it's kind of a status quo," he said. "... This is a big commitment of time, and resources, and expertise and leadership to make that kind of a change and to engage the community as best you can in that kind of change."
O'Brien said he once ran a large shelter and was skeptical that housing would make a big difference. But he says studies show that it reduces medical costs, helps people get back on their feet faster and cuts down on crime.
Salem police may go to the shelter to deal with unruly individuals but have had "minimal problems" with the apartments, according to Sgt. Harry Rocheville, head of the Community Impact Unit.
Cote said that while the apartments have been "incredibly quiet," not all has gone perfectly.
In addition to one death (from natural causes), he says three or four tenants have been evicted for breaking rules, usually the drug or alcohol policy. The apartments are "sober housing."
Staff also has had to learn how to select tenants better and where to place them in a building. "It took a long time to figure out the mix," Cote said.
Help and a home
Catherine Vasey, 52, has been part of the mix in one building, the former church rectory, for the past year. She feels fortunate to have landed there.
The mother of four said she had a rough time after her husband of 19 years died, going from an apartment to the shelter to a rooming house to her daughter's house and then back to the shelter.
"I actually slept on a park bench for two months," she said.
Although her room is small and she shares a bathroom down the hall, this is home, Vasey said as she sat on her bed knitting a blanket.
She is living independently, she said, has a roof over her head, has broken her addiction to "weed," or marijuana, and is getting help dealing with her problems, all things that would have made her late mother proud.
"My mother is patting me on the back so much it isn't funny," she said with a grin.
Man Falls Off Crane, Dies After Police Standoff
Raw Video: Cop Shoots Man Eating Another's Face
Russia Condemns Ally Syria Over Massacre of 108
Raw Video: Earthquake Shakes Evacuees in Italy
Dairy Farm Uses Chiropractor to Help Cows
Unexpected Smog in Pristine National Parks
Air Canada Plane Makes Emergency Landing
New Ticks Spread Across Southeast, Diseases Rise
Bring Your Own Tech Programs Charge Up Students
Pope's Butler Vows to Help Vatican Investigation
Mother of Allegedly Abused Girl Denies Claims
Raw Video: 19 Dead in Qatar Shopping Mall Fire
Service Dogs Help Wash. Soldiers Battling PTSD
Raw Video: Heckler Bursts in on Blair Testimony
Japan Farmers Plant, Seek Radiation-free Rice
Vatican in Chaos After Butler Arrested for Leaks
