Shalom makes houses home

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This article was published 30/07/2016 (3583 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Shalom is a Hebrew word meaning peace, but for more than two dozen Winnipeg adults living with special needs, it also means home.

Since 1980, Shalom Residences Inc. has offered a residential setting and supports almost three dozen people living with special needs, some in their 20s while the oldest is 75.

Barbra Steele and Susan Tax are two of the non-profit, non-sectarian organization’s residents.

“I love my house,” Steele said.

“My manager is so nice. She’s friendly. She even takes me to her husband’s baseball games.

“And I like my roommates, too.”

Tax, who lives in the house where the photograph accompanying this article was taken, said “it is fantastic.

“I have my own bedroom. I love living in this house. I have a nice staff who cares about everybody and likes everyone in the house.”

Shalom Residences’ philosophy is “people with intellectual disabilities have the right to be full members of their community and that it is the duty of the community to ensure that opportunities exist in social, residential, religious and cultural arenas.”

The organization’s objective is to help its residents be as self-sufficient as possible, become contributing members of society and develop rewarding personal relationships.

Frank Steele, and his wife, Sybil, were one of the five original pairs of parents who realized in the late 1970s they wanted their children living with special needs to have as independent a life as they could, and that wasn’t possible if they became adults still living in the family home.

“We knew at the time they couldn’t stay with their parents in the family home all their lives,” Steele said.

“They needed to live their own lives and be able to work.”

Steele said when the organization was incorporated in 1978, none of the parents had ever operated a group home or a charitable organization, but they wanted to create a place where their children could live out their lives.

And while all the founding families were Jewish, they also didn’t want to restrict the organization to helping only Jewish adults living with special needs. But they did want the homes to follow Jewish holidays and serve kosher food.

“To show you how green we were, we incorporated as Shalom Residence Inc. — singular,” Steele said.

“We thought we would only have one house. But then we decided to keep going.”

It was a different era in Winnipeg when the families asked the city for approval to open the group home. Steele said their first house, on Cathedral Avenue, did generate opposition from the community during the planning stages, and they had to battle to receive approval from city council.

But Steele said by the time they were setting up their second house, many of the same people who opposed the earlier house came to meetings to offer their support.

“They said our people don’t drink alcohol. They don’t have loud parties into the night. They don’t screech tires in the middle of the night. They are great neighbours.”

Nancy Hughes, Shalom’s executive director, said they now have grown to operate seven group homes with 24 of the residents living there, another eight living in their own apartments with some support and three others living in their parents’ homes, but receiving outreach services.

“Six of the homes are in West Kildonan and the Garden City area, but we just opened a new home in River Heights,” Hughes said.

“It’s the first time we’ve had a home in south Winnipeg… a lot of the (Jewish) population has moved south, so the demand from young families is for houses in the south end. It’s where they grew up.“

For Shalom’s new house, the Jewish Foundation of Manitoba contributed a grant so appliances and fixtures could be purchased for it. The Manitoba Real Estate Association Shelter Foundation also gave money so they could buy small appliances and household supplies.

“We have supported them in a pretty significant way through our granting process through the years,” said Marsha Cowan, CEO of the Jewish Foundation of Manitoba.

“We generally fund upgrades to group homes. We do upgrades of flooring, painting and roofing. They are providing a very important service to adults who need that kind of housing environment.

“And they have an excellent track record, and that’s important. We have a good relationship with them.”

Hughes said Shalom operates like most other group homes for people living with disabilities in the city. The organization fundraises to pay the down payment on a house, and then the ongoing costs for staffing and the mortgage are paid out of the room-and-board benefits the provincial government pays the residents.

Hughes said the houses really become homes for the residents who live there.

“We’ve had people pass away,” she said. “We consider it home for as long as they can stay and we have what they need. We have an aging group — that’s why we’re excited to open a new home with young people in their 20s.”

Hughes said Shalom’s homes have always operated as a community within a community. The residents get together for birthday celebrations and barbecues. They go on outings together.

“With most of our homes, while we stay far enough away for zoning regulations, we are close enough to do things together. Some are close enough to walk between.”

Charles Tax, Shalom’s president, said his sister, Susan, has lived in one of the homes for about 11 years.

“She lived at home until my mom passed away,” Tax said.

“She’s very outgoing. She sang You’ll Never Walk Alone at the fundraising dinner, and she nailed it.”

Tax said his sister is one of three women, all in their 60s, who live together in a home.

“The good thing is she is in the milieu with other people for social functions. When there’s a birthday, everybody gets together from the other houses… everybody knows everybody. If we had a lot more houses, we wouldn’t have that.”

Steele said the organizations holds an annual lottery dinner and draw fundraiser — it was held just last month — to help pay for extras in the houses and for the residents.

“All of them go on vacation with staff — not family,” he said.

“They go all over the place — Disneyland, Dollywood, the West Coast, the East Coast. They travel so that’s why we need to raise extra funding.”

When it comes down to it with Shalom, home really is where the heart is.

“This is my house,” Susan Tax said with a huge grin. “And I have a great cat I named Teo. I bought it from the humane society.

“I love it here.”

kevin.rollason@freepress.mb.ca