Some DeKalb volunteers plan to have housing for the homeless by fall 1990.

Andria Rusian, organizer of Jubilee Service, said she hopes to be able to offer DeKalb homeless temporary housing this fall.

Rusian said the project should get approval for a grant in the spring. Jubilee Service applied for grants almost everywhere, she said, but the grant is likely to come from a Stuart B. McKinney federal grant, she said. “The McKinney Grant is specifically intended to aid the homeless,” she said.

usian said she thought that “transitional housing is definitely needed in DeKalb.”

Bill Nicklas, director of DeKalb’s Building and Community Services, said the city is interested in helping fund the housing. Rusian said the city offered to help purchase a building, but the deal fell through.

Temporary housing would be used for those who lose their home in a fire or those who are evicted because of safety hazards, Nicklas said. Others who might need the housing are newly-released mental health patients and families who came to DeKalb in search of work, he said.

Rusian said her idea of who would get housing was basically the same as Nicklas’, but she added the housing would be used as a place where homeless families can go to receive counseling, as well as shelter.

Nicklas said the housing location is still unknown. He said Jubilee is looking for a building in the C-zone, where multi-family buildings are located.

The Jubilee Service plans to buy a building which will house four or five families, Rusian said. The families will pay rent to the Jubilee and attend counseling, she said.

The amount of rent is specified by a contract between the family in need and the original cost of the building, Rusian said.

Counseling services will range from teaching people how to balance a checkbook to helping families devastated by a house fire, Rusian said.

Families will be allowed to stay in the transitional housing for up to 18 months and receive counseling. “At the end of the period, the families have the option to stay at the building and continue paying rent or to find housing on their own.”, Rusian said.

Then Jubilee Service plans to buy another building and begin again with other families, she said.

If a family is unable to successfully use the transitional housing, Rusian said they will either be asked to leave or a new contract can be drawn up.

Rusian said Jubilee Service will screen families, looking at need first, and then the severity of the family’s problems and their willingness to overcome, she said.