WICHITA, Kan. _ The Union Rescue Mission in Wichita two years ago began asking for more effort from the homeless men it feeds and shelters every day.
They asked them to work harder to find jobs and homes and to more assertively address problems such as substance abuse.
One result: Donations to the Union Rescue Mission went up by half a million dollars annually in the past two years, said executive director Denny Bender.
The mission stopped giving free beds and food to homeless men every night with no strings attached and no time limit. Some men had stayed there for years, or decades. One man had stayed for 30 years, until the new rules went into effect two years ago.
"Part of why we did this was that we think doing more for themselves gives men more dignity and more of a feeling of self-worth," Bender said.
They still shelter men, Bender said. But there are time limits and new expectations. Men can stay for 90 days now and not indefinitely. And during those 90 days, they'll be offered new or amplified programs providing job training, life skill education and more.
The mission's move has already encouraged another Wichita charity to consider a similar strategy, said Wendy Glick, director of Catholic Charities of Wichita. She said donors to Catholic Charities, which aided more than 17,000 people last year, started asking for similar strategies about three years ago, when Bender first introduced his changes at Union Rescue Mission.
With the new expectations, some men did more for themselves, Bender said.
"But our biggest benefit was with donors," he said.
Donations to the faith-based charity were about $1.9 million in 2014, Bender said. "In 2015 and in this year, donations reached $2.4 million, with many donors saying they gave more because of the changes," he said.
"A number of our donors were saying, 'Hey, you're introducing more accountability, and we like that,' " Bender said. The additional money helped create more programs to help people help themselves, he said.
It was an experiment, Bender said, "to try to change the way a man lives, rather than where he lives."
"Denny was like a fish swimming upstream when he started this," Glick said. "But it's absolutely a better model for how to help people; it's more efficient, there's some cost savings to the agency � and it's what donors are asking for. Including our donors."
Other charities nationally are doing this now, she said. "As we go to national conferences, we're seeing programs start to shift to that model," she said.
Not all the men bought into it, Bender said.
The new rules prompted some men to find another place to live. In 2014, the mission was taking in an average of 115 men a night. That has dropped to an average of 91 men a night this year.
But some men rose to the challenge, taking training and education classes, Bender said.
"We like to think of the mission now as an incubator for change rather than a first-aid station for the homeless," he said.
Some homeless men got jobs _ and homes.
Brian Edwards said he slept outdoors at Riverside Park during most of last year. He drank heavily because of depression, he said.
"I survived a winter sleeping in snow," he said in a phone interview from a truck stop in northern Illinois. "I got kicked in the face one day by a guy trying to steal my wallet, which had no more than two or three dollars in it."
In part because of the mission and new classes it offered, Edwards is now hauling loads all over the country for Melton Truck Lines. Classes at the mission taught him how to type, how to write a resume, how to manage anger and more. They did not teach him how to drive trucks, but they did show him how to apply for training and jobs.
His take-home pay is about $1,000 a week now; he has benefits including health insurance. He is paying part of his daughter's college tuition.
"The mission was basically a homeless shelter before the changes," Edwards said. "Some men didn't want to be helped, but the mission created new opportunities for those of us who wanted a better life."
The changes saved some money, which the mission then used to help create job programs right there at the mission, Bender said. The increased donations also helped create and strengthen programs to do more, Bender said.
The mission turned its kitchen into a classroom. It still provides meals for 91 or more men a day, but after the changes kicked in, it turned the kitchen into "Kitchen Prep," a classroom for cooks.
Loren Minnis is a formerly homeless man who worked for decades in the food industry; he now teaches "Kitchen Prep."
He has five students, all shelter residents. The mission began teaching cooks after the Kansas Department of Labor told administrators that there is a high demand for cooks statewide, Bender said.
"Make meals like it is in your home," Minnis tells his students. There is math involved in his teaching. If they are feeding 200 people at a church gathering, which he and his kitchen crew did several nights ago, how many quiches do you need, how many onions, how many biscuits for the biscuits and gravy?
Christopher Spencer, one of his students, is already an experienced cook; he said the mission training has helped him brush up on his skills.
"Some people here don't take advantage of what the mission is offering now, but when people come here, they find opportunity," he said.
Bender and board members had agonized over the new program for months before they implemented it in 2013.
"Since the mission has existed, (starting in 1950), our mission has been that we will take in any man, any time � and they could stay as long as they wanted," Bender said.
But Bender asked himself: Was charity with no strings attached creating comfortable habits and dependency? Would men not feel more dignity if they did more for themselves?
Starting in 2014, the mission told new arrivals that they could have the free bed and food for 90 days � and might extend their time there if the men sought job training and education, looked for jobs and addressed substance abuse issues.
"If they have a plan, we won't be rigid on the limited stay," Bender said.
But after 90 days, unless they have a plan, they'd have to leave _ for 90 days.
They can come back after that but must abide by the new rules.
One of the new donors Union Rescue Mission acquired in the past year is Edwards, who once slept in Riverside Park and now drives trucks.
"I give $150 to them every month," he said. "I believe in what they do."
