Joseph and Mary\u2019s Home,<\/a> where medical caregivers and social workers helped him heal, find an apartment and paid his rent for a year. <\/p>\n\u201cI didn\u2019t have anything, so they helped me get a place, they helped me get furniture,\u201d Jarrett said. \u201cThey made my life stable so I can move on.\u201d<\/p>\n
When people like Jarrett don\u2019t have a proper place to recuperate and take medication, they are more likely to be readmitted to the hospital, at an average cost of $3,200 a day, according to public health experts. <\/p>\n
Joseph and Mary\u2019s Home, a ministry of the nonprofit Sisters of Charity Health System, provides a path to recovery that\u2019s both compassionate and cost-effective, the nonprofit said. <\/p>\n
This year, Sisters of Charity Health System renovated a former dialysis center to serve as the new location for Joseph\u2019s Home, the 11-bed men\u2019s portion of its respite care home. <\/p>\n
The move from a two-story to a one-story space makes it more accessible for men with mobility issues, Kate McCall, director of annual giving and communications at the Sisters of Charity Health System. <\/p>\n
Mary\u2019s Home, the 10-bed respite care facility for women experiencing homelessness, already occupied half of the one-story building on Community College Avenue, near the former St. Vincent Charity Medical Center the Sisters administered for decades.<\/p>\n
The Joseph\u2019s Home $2.4 million renovations were completed this summer, and male residents are expected to move in by the end of the year, McCall said. <\/p>\n
A capital campaign, launched in June 2024, raised $3 million for the renovation, along with operating support and an endowment. <\/p>\n
The city of Cleveland contributed about $400,000 from American Rescue Plan Act funds. Cuyahoga County and the Ohio Department of Behavioral Health chipped in about $855,000. <\/p>\n
The renovations completely gutted the space, creating individual rooms, and adding new flooring, windows and ADA-accessible bathrooms. <\/p>\n
Male residents were moved to Mary\u2019s Home during the construction of the new Joseph\u2019s Home. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe are here to make sure men and women have a place where it\u2019s safe to heal, and that they\u2019re able to re-enter into the community after they\u2019re fully healed,\u201d McCall said. \u201cIt\u2019s just a great opportunity to continue the mission of Joseph and Mary\u2019s Home in a more accessible manner.\u201d<\/p>\n
Preparation for healthy life off the streets<\/p>\n
Many of the respite facility\u2019s patients come to the home directly from hospital stays. Others are referred by area nonprofit programs that support people who lack housing. <\/p>\n
The respite home isn\u2019t available for patients who need round-the-clock monitoring. Patients have to be well enough to move with a wheelchair or walker, and take care of their daily needs, McCall said.<\/p>\n
Residents often arrive with behavioral issues. They have open wounds and limb and toe amputations. Medical staff also see chronic illnesses such as diabetes and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.<\/p>\n
During the average resident\u2019s 80-day stay, the respite home helps with transportation to doctor appointments and referrals to behavioral health and substance use disorder services, along with finding affordable housing and teaching healthy living skills. <\/p>\n
Many landlords are reluctant to rent to people who have been incarcerated, said Marisa Rohn, chief program officer for the Sisters of Charity Health System. <\/p>\n
When clients do find an apartment, they can receive a stipend to cover security deposits from the home\u2019s Journey Home Fund, which is maintained solely through philanthropic donations. The stipend\u2019s amount varies on a case-by-case basis, the nonprofit said. <\/p>\n
Even after patients leave the respite care facility, an alumni program provides follow-up services, Rohn said.<\/p>\n
Joseph and Mary\u2019s Home cares for about 120 adults each year, on an annual budget of $1.44 million. Among those adults, about 70% were medically stable when they were discharged, and 90% have stable housing when they leave, the nonprofit said. <\/p>\n
Many clients leave Joseph and Mary\u2019s Home with new optimism about the future.<\/p>\n
McCall remembered a man battling with uncontrolled diabetes and alcohol use disorder. While in respite care, he was able to find a small apartment near a grocery store and stay sober for one year. <\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s the longest he\u2019s been sober since he was a teenager,\u201d McCall said. <\/p>\n
She also recalled a woman who experienced widowhood, bankruptcy and homelessness. She lost several toes to frostbite, but has been healing at respite care, where medical staff ensure her dressings stay clean and dry.<\/p>\n
Thanks to assistance from the nonprofit, she can move into subsidized housing soon. \u201cShe\u2019s so excited,\u201d McCall said. <\/p>\n
Women\u2019s facility joined men\u2019s in 2022<\/p>\n
In 2000, the Sisters of Charity Health System opened Joseph\u2019s Home in a two-story former convent on Community College Avenue, opposite the old St. Vincent Charity Medical Center. <\/p>\n
In 2021, Sisters of Charity began fundraising to create Mary\u2019s Home, a facility that would provide similar healthcare and services to women. The Mary\u2019s Home capital campaign raised $1.5 million, funding the facility\u2019s opening in 2022. <\/p>\n
Mary\u2019s Home took over a one-story building, adjacent to the original Joseph\u2019s Home. The one-story building had previously been divided between a day care and a dialysis center.<\/p>\n
In late 2024, the dialysis center moved out, and the Sisters of Charity realized that putting Joseph\u2019s Home in the dialysis center\u2019s old space would allow the men\u2019s and women\u2019s sections to be in the same building.<\/p>\n
Being a part of the Sisters of Charity Health System has made McCall realize that mental and physical health issues and homelessness can happen to anyone.<\/p>\n
\u201cJoseph and Mary\u2019s home is a beacon of hope,\u201d she said. \u201cThere\u2019s a lot of hardship and struggle, but there is goodness in this community. The people who work here want to be that beacon of hope for the people that they\u2019re serving.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CLEVELAND, Ohio \u2014 A Cleveland man who lost his toes to frostbite while experiencing homelessness found stability through…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":367573,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[59],"tags":[180528,97,252,253,1493,180526,180527],"class_list":{"0":"post-367572","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-health-care","8":"tag-downtown-cleveland","9":"tag-health","10":"tag-health-care","11":"tag-healthcare","12":"tag-hospital","13":"tag-joseph-and-marys-home","14":"tag-st-vincent-charity"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/367572","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=367572"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/367572\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/367573"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=367572"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=367572"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=367572"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}