Residents of Cleveland’s only women’s shelter report over-crowding, under-funding

 

Words and photos by Brittany Rees

Audio by Eric Rivers

On Payne Avenue, Norma Herr stands, a tall grey building, housing over 200 homeless women each night. However, the horseshoe-shaped center was only ever meant to take care of around 120.

Inside, women go without food or beds, sleeping on bare cement and sneaking in snacks.

“The shelter was only built to fit 120,” Robin Adellman, resident of Norma Herr and Northeast Ohio Coalition for the Homeless (NEOCH) member, said. “It hasn’t done that in 10 years. We have 220 at the moment.”

With such over-crowding, Adellman said Norma Herr fails to provide meals for every resident. Instead, many go to bed hungry.

“Because it’s only built for 120, they only ever order enough meals for 120 people,” Adellman said. Norma Herr, like the majority of shelters in the Cleveland area, order individual meals from the Lutheran Metropolitan Ministry’s Central Kitchen. With such little food, staff stretches what they have to serve 160, though Adellman and other women reported that only intensified their dilemma.

“They freeze food that shouldn’t be frozen, and they add extra water to everything,” Adellman said. “But it makes it so inedible. Women have sat in the dining room crying over how terrible it is.”

Adellman and NEOCH have been tracking food service at Norma Herr, tallying up how many women were left without food and if any specialty dietary concerns were met by staff. According to their findings, not a single dining service since September has fed every woman at the shelter, nor has there been a single vegetarian or gluten-free option since they began keeping track of the meals in April. In addition, only around half of the meals did the women, through voting, find palatable.

However, food isn’t the only service being neglected at Norma Herr. The shelter’s website claims that it provides mental health, employment, housing and rehabilitation services for its residents. However, not a single one of those services is offered. Instead, women deemed mentally unfit by staff are placed in the basement of the building, equipped with a rec room, bathrooms and mats to sleep on.  Throughout the rest of the building, hundreds of women sit against the wall or prop themselves up on plastic chairs. There aren’t any newspapers, board games, crafts or tables for the women to sit around.

“They don’t even let us have the classifieds,” Adellman said.

The site also states Norma Herr holds only 85 women, a claim NEOCH executive director Brian Davis refutes.

“That was true seven years ago, but the population has sky-rocketed,” Davis said. He’s been serving on the council for 6 years now. The group meets the first Tuesday of the month to discuss Cleveland’s homeless issues and gather reports to present to the city council. “Now it’s uncontrollable.”

With few resources, the women and NEOCH blame the city council for under-funding the center.

“The two main shelters in Cleveland are 2100 Lakeside for men and Norma Herr for women,” Davis said. “However, men also have the option to stay at Volunteers of America, Northpoint Inn, the Salvation Army and more. These women have nowhere else to go. They aren’t treated equally.”

In a city council meeting December 7, Davis and other representatives from NEOCH brought concerns for Norma Herr to councilmen and asked the council look for a new operator for the shelter and allot it more funding.

“The present situation is not working,” Davis told the council. “This situation is unacceptable.” During the meeting, councilwoman Yvonne Conwell said the council will be adding 29 new beds to Norma Herr.

“Twenty-nine beds without any other change won’t solve the problem,” Davis told Conwell. “If you went to the shelter at night, instead of during the day, Ms. Conwell, you’d see that it’s a disaster.”

Even for women with medical conditions, beds are not provided.

“I have a doctor’s note,” Akia, who asked her last name not be shared, said. “That means I get a mat but I don’t get any of the beds upstairs.”

Akia is seven months pregnant with twins, and the Cleveland Clinic has told her she’s at a high risk for a miscarriage. According to Akia, her doctors sent a letter to Norma Herr, explaining Akia’s situation and stating she needed a real mattress to sleep on.

“When I brought it up, I was just told that there was nothing they could do,” she said.

Sleeping arrangements at Norma Herr come on a first come, first served basis. Bed check-in is at 7:30 p.m. At that point, everyone with an assigned bed must be in it. If not, staff will reassign it to another resident.