Voice Mail Becomes Lifeline for Homeless

Program Will Give Job, Housing Seekers Their Own Numbers

By Theola S. Labbe Washington Post Staff Writer

Mabel McNair, who was once homeless, is enrolled in a culinary arts class and plans to take advantage of a new District program that will provide a free voice-mail service to low-income individuals and the homeless.

McNair, 49, lives in transitional housing in Northwest Washington and is midway through a 12-week training program sponsored by D.C. Central Kitchen. Her goal is to land a job by the time she graduates.

She uses a prepaid cellphone and pays $10 for 50 minutes.

"That goes quickly," she said.

Through the new District program, which was announced last month, McNair would have a private number landlords could use to contact her as she searches for a permanent place to live. When chefs and others visit the class looking for students to hire, McNair wants to be sure to have a reliable phone number to give out.

"I know it would benefit me," McNair said about access to free voice mail. "There's a lot of jobs that come through the school."

Community Voice Mail, a national program, will make 350 voice-mail boxes available to low-income and homeless individuals in the District at no cost. People who want to enroll in the program will be asked to work with a social services case manager who will make the service available as part of a client's overall plan to find a job or to move out of a shelter or transitional housing. Each person enrolled will receive a private District phone number that is connected to a voice-mail box. The number can be used only to check messages.

Darcy Litzenberger, senior program manager for Catholic Community Services, which runs several homeless shelters and transitional housing programs in the city, said his organization was delighted by the prospect of the program and was interested in having 30 to 50 voice-mail boxes.

Staff members take messages at shelters or other places where the homeless and low-income live, but sometimes individuals don't return to the shelter every night, Litzenberger said. In addition, enrollment in social services programs, such as food stamps and Medicaid, often requires follow-up, and private voice mail is critical, Litzenberger said.

"Nowadays, things like voice mail and e-mail are not luxuries; they are necessities," he said.

Community Voice Mail, designed by a Seattle-based nonprofit organization, explains its mission through the motto "turning phone lines into lifelines." The nonprofit group collects testimonials, including a story from one user in Minnesota who said she got a job simply because she could put a phone number down on an application.

Jennifer Brandon, executive director of Community Voice Mail, said the group began the program more than a decade ago and serves 46,000 people across 37 cities annually. During Hurricane Katrina, Community Voice Mail provided phone numbers to evacuees. The District will be the 38th city in the program. The group plans to expand to Fort Worth this summer.

"It's a tool to help people get on their feet," said Terry Lynch, executive director of the Downtown Cluster of Congregations, a nonprofit group of 44 churches throughout the District that does social service outreach and funds programs. A member church, St. John's Episcopal, near Lafayette Square, where many homeless people congregate, gave $15,000 in start-up funds for the project. The District and the Golden Triangle Business Improvement District also contributed funds for the program.

D.C. Central Kitchen, a nonprofit organization that provides meals for the homeless in addition to running the culinary training program, will notify other nonprofit groups about the voice-mail service.

Brandon said she first met Robert Egger, chief executive of D.C. Central Kitchen, two years ago to talk about the program.

"This is exactly the kind of partner we need," Brandon said.

2006 The Washington Post Company

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