(Community Matters 189) Run-Up to Roofsit 1: Helping Unhoused Families Stay Together

This is the first in a series of interviews shedding light on The Haven of Rest's mission and programs ahead of its annual Roofsit fundraiser. The Haven marks its 70th anniversary in 2026.

The annual Roofsit, hosted by The Haven of Rest Ministries, aims to draw awareness and fundraise to help homeless families in Battle Creek. Lisa Foley, who oversees Operations at the Haven's Inasmuch House shelter, talks about what family homelessness looks like in Battle Creek today and why the fundraiser is essential to keep critical services running. 

Episode Resources

The Haven of Rest Ministries Website

ABOUT COMMUNITY MATTERS
Former WBCK Morning Show host Richard Piet (2014-2017) returns to host Community Matters, an interview program focused on community leaders and newsmakers in and around Battle Creek. Community Matters is heard Saturdays, 8:00 AM Eastern on WBCK-FM (95.3) and anytime at battlecreekpodcast.com.

Community Matters is sponsored by Lakeview Ford Lincoln and produced by Livemic Communications.

Do you have a non-profit you'd like to hear highlighted on Community Matters? Go to our website and let us know!

Transcript

Welcome And Why Roof Sit Returns

Richard Piet 0:02

Welcome to Community Matters. Richard Piet here. Happy you're with us. Whether it is radio on a Saturday at 95.3 or Battle Crew Podcast.com, or you're a fancy follower of ours now, you just go where you get podcasts and type Community Matters Calhoun County. You can follow us there and you'll get just a little notice, not too intrusive, that tells you when we have new episodes. Speaking of new episodes, I want to just let you know that for the next several weeks on Community Matters and Battle Creek Podcast.com, we are going to turn the focus to the Haven of Rest. If you're a legacy listener of Community Matters, you may remember the days when uh the folks making it happen at the Haven and Inas much House situated themselves on a rooftop over a weekend to cause a spectacle on purpose for the cause of helping those who are unsheltered in Battle Creek. We used to do that too when uh you know in days gone by with WBCK, we would be up there as well. Uh times are different these days, except that the folks at the Haven are going to be up there on June 12th and 13th for the same cause, trying to help give hope and shelter to those who need it. And they've been doing it, mind you, since 1956 in Battle Creek. 70 years this year that that's been going on. Uh so over the next several weeks, we are going to call your attention to the roof sit effort and the mission of the Haven of Rest and Inasmuch House Today,

Meet Lisa Foley And The Mission

Richard Piet 1:45

Lisa Foley is with us as she oversees operations at In As Much House, part of the Haven of Rest. Hello, Lisa.

Lisa Foley 1:53

Hello, good at good morning.

Richard Piet 1:55

Thanks for this uh opportunity. Boy, when you contemplate the task at hand, is it a bigger task this year than most? Do or does it just feel that way? This is a job every single year.

Lisa Foley 2:10

Yes, this year it has it's a little different. Economy is challenging for everyone, and not that it hasn't always been, but it's a seems to be a little bit more challenging now. And the money that is raised with a roof set, it goes to Inasmuch House, which keeps the operations going for the unhoused families, the women and the children. And so we are going to be on this roof set. We're going out to have bucket brigades, we're going to be on the corners, we're going to be trying to get creative and collecting money to make this a success because this is one of the biggest fundraisers for Inasmuch.

Richard Piet 2:56

If you remember Roof Sit from years gone by, you know that that's true. It is set for uh the 12th and 13th of June. So uh that might sound like it's far away, but you know, well, it'll be here before we know it. And so uh we'll certainly be talking about that in the weeks to come as it gets closer. And it you'll recall the bucket brigade to which Lisa refers, folks out in the community with buckets at intersections trying to uh collect to support the mission of the Haven and Inas Much House. You talked about families, Lisa. You know, I wonder sometimes if we understand clearly that when someone

Why Roof Sit Funding Matters

Richard Piet 3:40

is facing homelessness, their family is with them, and you see the evidence of that, right? So the is it fair to say the majority of folks whom you help are coming with their families?

Lisa Foley 3:55

Absolutely. So one thing I want to explain also is that when I just talked about the economy, and so it hits people pretty hard. And so last year we had 199 homeless kids in my shelter, and they come, you know, with moms and and everything, and when they come in, they you know, sometimes the kids have shoes, sometimes they don't. People become unhoused for several different reasons. Domestic violence is one, and an economy is one. So I have these mothers that do come in that are working mothers, but they cannot afford the daycare, they cannot afford the rent. And, you know, there's just a slew of things that's barriers for them. So when they come into Inas Much, I have two case managers, so I assign them, everyone gets a case manager, and we start to reduce the barriers, we problem solve with them and help them figure out how we can do this. In addition to that, I teach life skills classes, and so when I teach the life skills classes, it is ranging from parenting to budgeting to employment, housing, everything that's combined into that. And so we teach them budgeting. We teach them is this something I want when I walk in a store, is this something I need? So we're rearranging the thought pattern on okay, how can I do this on the amount of money I have? We also set up with uh the children that come in. We help get them registered for school, get them going to school, we set up the transportation so no child is left behind here. And so with that, we stay in close communications with the teachers and we learn what subjects these kids are behind in. And then I have tutors and mentors that will come in and work with the kids and help get them up to speed to the grade level they are, because a lot of times these kids are involved in the adult barriers, and sometimes we have to just allow them to be children and play on a playground and just build volcanoes in our classroom.

Richard Piet 6:26

Yeah, you are describing the situation

Case Management And Family Stability

Richard Piet 6:30

that uh not only these folks are facing, but the situation that helps them address the root causes of why they're there. It's not just a situation where someone has found themselves with no place to live, and and you're just saying, come on over here until you figure it out. You're helping them do it.

Lisa Foley 6:52

Right. So when they come in, they can stay 30 to 60 days. We have nine family rooms and two dorm rooms. The dorm rooms are utilized for the women who don't have children. One of the things that we do here also is that we work with child protective services, which means that the parents can come in, they can attend my parenting classes, and then we work close to keeping families together. Okay, so we work a lot with different agencies out in the within the community to be able to help them, assist them in their jobs too. But the whole goal here is to allow the families to stay together, to reduce the barriers that they're facing. And it and sometimes we're we're helping them register and sign up with KCC, or we're helping them get into a trade space. So it is something that uh lasts them, you know, lasts a lifetime.

Richard Piet 7:59

Yeah.

Lisa Foley 8:00

And then, you know, when they come in, you know, and you're facing situations like this, a person's self-esteem, self-value, and self-worth can go right out the door. And so it is helping them believe in themselves and knowing that no matter what family you grew up in, you can make the change with your own family and you can do this no matter what barrier it is that you face, you've got this. And we need to get you to do that so you can teach your children that there's better things out there or there's options out there.

Richard Piet 8:40

Uh, you listen to Lisa talk and you uh start to get the impression uh about why she's in charge at Inas Much Else. I love it. You are ready to help folks push through probably uh one of the worst situations in their lives. And I would suspect this is what they need, isn't it? Someone to help them see the path and give them encouragement to take it.

Lisa Foley 9:10

Yep, just like this weekend's Mother's Day weekend. Well, I call it Women's Day instead of Mother's Day because not everyone here is a mom. So we just spent the morning part. Staff and I have spent the morning part putting Mother's Day bags together for the moms. You know, one of the biggest things when people find out what I do, and I've done I've been with the Haven for a long time. And one of the things they ask, they judge people, they're like, it's the parents' fault. They don't work, they're whatever. But let me explain something. That myth is out the window because if you are working in any job, you know gas prices, you know that you have food prices that's gone up. And if we really sat and think about it, it would only take one thing

Myths About Homelessness And Transit

Lisa Foley 10:05

to start to mess up anyone's life to where they would need to be, unfortunately, in this situation. But one of the barriers that we have here is that the Battle Creek Bussey has stopped at 3:30. Okay, the Haven and Inasmuch is located downtown Battle Creek across from the courthouse. The higher payer jobs are out at the fort. The factories pay higher. However, there's a struggle, there's a big, huge barrier because if they're working second shift, they may be able to get to the job, but they can't get back to the shelter. So we've segregated the better paying jobs away from the downtown. So it makes it really complicated for them to be able to get the transportation from and to work. And one of the things is I had an organization that came in here and wanted to say, hey, I have transportation. And when I asked the person how much he has a company, and I asked him how much, he wanted to charge $30 one way to the port and $30 back for the homeless. And I just told him, Kind, sir, when you go write a grant to provide the funding, then come see me again. But when we look at the whole picture, we have to look at what barriers have we created as a community and how can we reduce these barriers?

Richard Piet 11:40

So there's just one example, I suppose, of a solution waiting to happen, right? Someone with the right purview to drive folks back and forth in off hours would be doing a terrific service for some of the folks you're helping at the Haven and Inasmuch House. So uh there's a little bit of the context of the issue Lisa's provided for us. Roofsit on the 12th and 13th of June will seek to address, I think, you know, you're aiming for $60,000, and that's to just address the everyday needs. The transit thing is special, isn't it?

Lisa Foley 12:24

Yes, and I would love to be able to have the opportunity to offer that, but as a nonprofit, you know, we're um challenged in all areas as a nonprofit. Yep. So with the community's help, we can continue. And I would like to add too, Richard, is that we are the only family shelter, homeless shelter in Calhoun County. And so also what we do is when we're full, Inasmuch, when we're full, we have something that's called the warm shelter. And so what happens is the ladies will come in at 8 30 at night from the streets. They'll come in at 8 30 at night, and we will feed them, give them hygiene, their showers, then we they sleep, they sleep here, so you know they're not on the streets, and then in the morning we wake them up, we feed them, we give them coffee, they can shower again, whatever their needs are, and they can repeat that as many times as they want. And we're usually on an average about 10 ladies a

Warm Shelter And How To Give

Lisa Foley 13:35

night off the streets. So, in addition to what we house in-house, we add 10 more to that.

Richard Piet 13:42

So your support of the Haven and Inas much house now or any time of the year, but certainly around the roof set time, uh, these are the services that it supports. So uh not only are we talking about roof set on the 12th and 13th, but if someone wants to donate right now, thehavenbc.org is there 24 hours a day. They can go make a donation electronically, can't they?

Lisa Foley 14:09

Yes, absolutely. And I also want to remind when you make that donation, there was a hundred and ninety nine kids in my shelter last year. So when you make that donation, this is who you get to also serve. So thank you.

Richard Piet 14:28

Yeah, let that uh sink in for just a second. 199 kids in 2025 at the Haven.

Squirrel Hollow Event And Key Dates

Richard Piet 14:35

You also are planning a special event at Squirrel Hollow Golf Club. This is coming up the week before the Roof Sit event, Friday, June 5th. What do you have planned?

Lisa Foley 14:46

We're gonna have a great time. We have a great time planned. So Squirrel Holler has been so kind to us to allow us to come out. I'm going out there Friday, the 5th. They have live music, all kinds of entertainment, and food trucks are out there. Um, we're gonna have uh raffle. You can donate in our buckets out there, and it's a wonderful time. The owner, Jen, is just a beautiful lady. I encourage everybody. She has such a great personality, and so I encourage everybody to come out. So it will the music, it's 7 to 10, 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. on Friday the 5th. Come see me. Well, I'll shake your hand and you know, and welcome you and thanks for just supporting.

Richard Piet 15:37

That's right. You can uh look Lisa in the eye and and make the donation and uh see how much uh she appreciates it on behalf of the folks who depend on In as much House and the Haven of Rest. Yes, for this. All right, so as I say, over the next few weeks, we'll continue to talk to you about the Haven as uh the run-up to the Big Squirrel Hollow event on the 5th, and then of course roof sit on 12 and 13 June. And so we'll be talking about it on community matters uh all the way up until then. Lisa Foley

Closing Thanks And Next Steps

Richard Piet 16:10

Inasmuch House at the Haven. Thank you for telling us the story, and we'll stay in touch.

Lisa Foley 16:17

Thanks, Richard. Yeah, have a great day, and thank you everyone for listening.