DAYTON, Ohio — One Ohio outreach organization has launched a new program to help people in crisis find a compassionate place to stay for the night.
“A lot of these are left by the community, so that’s an amazing point,” Have a Gay Day Executive Director Michael Knote said as he organized business cards in the nonprofit’s lobby.
The group offers a lot of outreach, but there’s a new program added to the growing list, called The Ada Gaden Project.
Over the years, Have a Gay Day has helped people in crisis find emergency housing, but Knote hopes this new project can take it to the next level.
They can usually find personal emergency housing within 24 to 48 hours.
“While it is focused specifically in Montgomery County, we have done things like provided emergency transportation for people needing to get to a shelter in other parts of the country,” he said.
Last April, Knote and the community lost their friend, Ada.
“She did so much. She had such a great spirit and she truly, truly gave everything,” Knote said.
In her memory, he hopes this project will help fill a void.
“That void is providing an emergency response without a lot of red tape. For Ada, being able to offer someone a place to stay for the night was literally just her saying, ‘you can stay as long as you need. You can come into the house. You can sleep on the couch.’ She was kind of like the ultimate couch-surfing kind of queen,” he said.
While a homeless shelter might seem like a solution, many worry about safety, the possibility of discrimination, stigmas, and policies to protect themselves.
“It’s huge to be able to say to someone, ‘you don’t have to share your room with 30 other people. You don’t have to worry about bed bugs. You don’t have to worry about sheets — are they dirty or are they clean, is this space safe for me?’” Knote said.
A long-term goal for the Ada Gaden Project is to give people in crisis a better option.
“The longevity of this, because hotel costs are high, is we’d like to purchase property and build monolithic dome homes,” said Knote.
For the cost of one or two nights in a hotel, a person could stay for an entire month.
“It’s fireproof, it’s waterproof, it’s bug-proof, it can withstand a category four tornado,” Knote said while explaining how the dome homes work.
The dome homes might take a while to get up and running, however, people can still apply for assistance now and Have a Gay Day will try to help immediately with a hotel and resources.
“There’s a lot and there’s a lot that could be better and what we really want to do through this project in the memory of Ada is create programming that is kind,” Knote said.
After Ada’s death, an anonymous donor gave the organization $5,000 to start the project.
Most of the money needed to keep it going and to expand comes from donors and events around the area.
