City Gets Homeless Apartments

DAYTON, Ohio -- Miki Delemos stops by apartments on West Grand Avenue almost every day to check on her "family."

She doesn't have to she doesn't get paid to.

Delemos wants to see how her former homeless friends are doing.

"We've tried to establish a family atmosphere," Delemos said. "We check up on each other and make sure everyone is doing OK."

As a case manager for The Other Place, a nonprofit homeless advocate group, Delemos is doing the grunt work of a Montgomery countywide initiative to end chronic homelessness.

She pulled up Tuesday morning, Aug. 25, to a group of homeless panhandlers recently placed in separate apartments in the 600 block of West Grand Avenue.

Delemos barely gets out of the car before the men on the front porch jump up and shout at her:

"That's the woman, the sweet one who saved me," said Dan Inman, 51, who spent 10 years on the streets of Dayton.

Delemos has spent the better part of the last month intricately integrating Inman and 16 others back into society.

She is teaching the group how to apply for jobs, social security benefits and receive proper medical care.

She also shows them how to utilize local food pantries and stretch their food stamps.

It's not easy.

Homelessness is a problem many don't care to tackle because of its mental, social and economical complexities.

Ronnie Olds, Inman and Richard Miniard have been problems for the city the last nine years, police reports show.

They are regarded by police and business owners near Brown and East Stewart streets as nuisances and drunks who panhandle illegally for money.

Each have been convicted numerous times of being drunk in public. Another resident in their complex, John C. Hibbits has been arrested more than 50 times, police records show.

All the men said they abandoned shelters because of the rules, opting instead for dirty tents erected in Veterans Park.

"The shelters were too violent," Inman said. "People yelling all the time, stopping you from keeping your appointments and just causing trouble. I'd rather be on the streets."

There are rules to staying in the apartments, Delemos said.

The tenants are not allowed to have extended-stay guests, drugs, or weapons and must stay out of trouble.

"They don't have to worry about me," Miniard said. "I got my TV and I have air conditioning. I can't remember the last time I had that."

Move was done quietly

Residents in the Grafton Hill neighborhood near Good Samaritan hospital have no idea 11 homeless people were moved into their neighborhood.

The Other Place spokeswoman Tina Patterson said the decision to integrate them into the neighborhood is not a new concept but was done quietly this time because of the stereotypes associated with the chronically homeless.

She is worried news of their presence will undo a month of "great strides" made by the group.

Neighbors at the complex said the new residents are "good people" and there have been no problems.

"I don't know that I object to them being in the neighborhood," said Cheryl Bates, president of Grafton Hill Neighborhood Association. "But I do object that we were not informed they were being moved here."

Bates said she is also concerned there isn't a supervisor at the complex 24 hours a day to make sure the tenants are behaving.

"There are so many complexities to homelessness that need constant attention," she said. "And this is such a beautiful neighborhood and we want to keep it that way."

Bates said the apartment complex the men were moved into has been a nuisance for her neighborhood and her association asked the city recently to tear it down.

"But we have been ignored by the (city's) planning and zoning boards," she said. "And it looks like it happened again."

County auditor records show the property was sold in June for $106,000 to Gary Zaremba, of New York City, and later transferred to 604 W Grand LLC with a New York address the same as Zaremba's.

Zaremba was not available for comment.

The Other Place is providing the rent for the 17 tenants and numerous others around the city with help from Miami Valley Housing Opportunities.

Patterson said she hopes to get more vouchers for housing now that the group is getting federal stimulus funds through the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

"This is a good program and we hope to get all the services going these people need to get back into society," Patterson said.