More people who've lost long term jobs are turning to the inn.
TRAVERSE CITY -- More people are turning to homeless shelters during these tough financial times and that has The Goodwill Inn homeless shelter noticing a new trend.
"We went from 76 a year ago up to 83 a night this year, so that's almost a 10% increase," says executive director of Goodwill Industries, Cecil McNally.
McNally says a large portion of this increase are people facing homelessness for the first time. He says people who have had hours cut at work or have lost long term jobs are now being forced to consider the Goodwill.
"They may go to an apartment or if that's not an option they may move in with family and that works for awhile but it usually only works for a certain amount of time and as that situation becomes unattainable then we start seeing people come to the shelter to stay here," says McNally.
McNally says last year 41% of people that turned to the Goodwill Inn had jobs. He says that number has dropped to 19% this year, meaning job loss could be the main reason people are turning to the shelter.
"I think because the economy tightened up last fall, most of the restaurants and stuff laid people off or even reduced their hours further. So in a lot of cases I think it's pushed people over the edge," says McNally.
In the process of finding a new job, McNally says people are also staying longer at the inn, all to make sure their finances are stabilized once they leave.
"The average stay has gone up to 41 days from 33 days for people staying at the shelter. There's a whole range that maybe somebody staying for one day or that could be a family that's staying for 90 or 120 days trying to get enough stabilized in their job situation so that they can move onto and apartment or better housing situation," says McNally.
McNally says larger amounts of people are also turning to the Goodwill Inn for their food pantry assistance, since he says more people are saving their money for things like prescriptions and monthly bills.
