The Hope Village, a transitional housing space, has sheltered some of Louisville’s homeless residents. Within the village, they stay in kiosks (donated by CVS) repurposed into homes on a site provided by Louisville Metro Government.
The organization is supposed to give residents resources that help them get the assistance they need to move forward in their lives, offering drug use counseling, mental health assistance and job opportunities afforded to them through government grants and individual donations. Some residents are claiming that these resources are not being given.
And now, in a document first leaked online by a Facebook page run by local activist Jeff Gill, the organization is asking that residents begin paying rent, or an “occupancy fee,” as Reverend Stachelle Bussey has called it. Bussey is the founder of Hope Buss, the 501(c)3 nonprofit organization that operates Hope Village.
The occupancy rate in the document was $75 per week, per tenant, but some residents say that number is unfeasible, especially considering the physical state some were in as they entered Hope Village earlier this year.
LEO reached out to Hope Village to understand more. However, after several attempts, Bussey said she did not feel comfortable talking over the phone. LEO Weekly interviewed Bussey at Hope Village to ask about the occupancy fee, and what was to come for the site.
“So really, all of this has been just a ‘What are all of us to do?’ I think some of this has just been us trying to work out Metro government and us — What is it going to be? What is it not going to be? You got the Chancery coming, and that’s the biggest thing. The biggest thing is the ordinance, that meant when the Chancery building was completed, that it would dissolve. That’s the safe outdoor space. So some of that is just working through the ordinance. That’s what we can’t forget. (…)Our goal since we have settled in agreement with Metro government is just to be solidified as transitional living, transitional housing as a safe outdoor space.
(…)And we have people here who are like, ‘I gotta figure out what to do with this. I got to figure out what to do with that.’ Some people are scared to have a bank account… And our goal is really just to… formalize a process. (…)”
Bussey said that there are other transitional housing spaces across Louisville that place a “programmatic fee” on residents who live there to keep things running smoothly.
“As we’re still thinking through what this entire program looks like, you know, going to different places, trying to see different models. You got the village coming. You got, you know, even reviewing some of like, Wayside, Salvation, looking at some of these models who are already transitions (housing). What are some of the things that they already have in place? And so some of them have programmatic fees. So that’s really the goal. The goal is how do we program a programmatic fee that feels very much low barrier, that gives people their own investment, their own buy-in.”
Bussey told WDRB that 60% of all residents working in some capacity at The Hope Village. When asked about this, she said that many of the resident workers do “odd jobs” that help out around the Village from time to time, and that they do not work set hours week-to-week.
“Some of them are doing something,” she said. “If they do something for us, we pay them to work.”
How are residents doing at Hope Village?
According to Melody, a resident at Hope Village, the material conditions of the space continue to deteriorate even with “programmatic fees” in place, with little being offered to tenants from Hope Village leadership.
“When you see ‘This is what you pay for when you donate,’ We don’t get none of that stuff,” Melody said. “No bus passes, no hair done — well Mo, he cuts hair now — anyway, we get none of that stuff.
Residents also say that meals are sparse with one or two meals coming from Feed Louisville every day. Despite a meal sharing plan that is advertised on Hope Village’s website, no other organization has taken any initiative to feed residents at Hope Village, and residents feel they are not getting enough to eat.
Angel Todd, The Hope Buss’ operations director, says that the residents who spoke with LEO Weekly couldn’t be more wrong. According to Todd, residents receive all three meals, and whatever food is leftover is kept in storage. LEO did not get a chance to see the storage while onsite at Hope Village due to an immediate escort out after the interview with Rev. Bussey.
“It’s like bagels, it’s oatmeal, cereal, stuff like that,” Todd said. “That’s what gets set out… but there’s always food.”
On its website, The Hope Buss states that donations from individuals and businesses go straight to residents at Hope Village, including “impacts” of the work there.
Below is the breakdown of everything residents at Hope Village are supposed to receive according to the organization’s website — and according to Bussey, homeless people across Louisville from Hope Buss should also receive the same.
- $15 covers the cost of a haircut for a Village resident.
- $20 provides one resident with a Hope Village ID card.
- $40 provides a regular bus pass for one resident for one month.
- $50 covers the cost of a welcome kit for one resident.
- $50 will purchase one bike and lock.
- $55 covers the cost of a TARC smart card (unlimited rides) for one resident for the month.
- $500 covers the cost of one tent.
- $1,000 will cover the cost of a community activity for our Village residents.
Steven, a homeless man who wishes to remain anonymous, currently resides at Hope Village, said that the only thing he was given was the welcome basket, which included two blankets, a comforter and a pillow for his cot in his housing unit.
He added that his physical state keeps him from working, which would help lower the amount of money he would need to spend on his weekly “occupancy fee.” In an interview with LEO Weekly, he said he was one of the first in the village to receive the document, with one Hope Village employee demanding he sign, “immediately.”
“I’m not going to be intimidated,” he said. “I appreciate what Hope Village has done for me, but I’m not going to be pushed around.”
“They always ask you, ‘You need anything,” Melody said. “I told myself, ‘Well, you ain’t got nothing.’ My guess is protocol,” she said. “They have to ask you, but they don’t have nothing.”
When asked about the donation page on the website, Bussey said many of the items needed to be updated, including the $1,000 “community activity.”
“A group activity probably is way more than that, actually, if we get everybody together,” she said. “That ought to be changed. (…) As an organization we’re going through several things.”
As for resources, residents say they aren’t getting much. Melody, who spoke with LEO Weekly behind the building of VOCAL-KY, a nonprofit organization dedicated to combating homelessness, said everything she has gotten, she has gotten herself without the help of Hope Village, or any of its “resources” that it markets itself on.
Melody did not feel comfortable on the cot provided to her when she arrived at Hope Village earlier this year, so she went and purchased an air mattress to sleep on in her housing unit.
“The only thing I got was a purse that (Stachelle’s) mother had. I got me a real nice Coach purse. Why does she have something like that to give out? That’s why we tell people, if you want to donate something, give it to the people, not the Village. Ten times out of ten, we ain’t gonna see it.
“They don’t help with (transitional housing),” she said. “They just have somebody come up there when she is able to come up there. I got my housing on the outside, they didn’t help me get any housing. They didn’t help me get a job. Everything I got, I got on my own.”
What new agreements have changed operations for Hope Village?
The Hope Buss is not given money as per a usual grant. The facility has run on a reimbursement model that could see money potentially not coming back to the organization for months, according to a previous interview with Todd by former LEO reporter Josh Wood.
With the mayor’s new budget in place for 2024, The Hope Buss has signed a new agreement and lease with the Metro Office of Resiliency and Community Services (RCS), which deals with grant funding for homeless encampments like Hope Village.
In the new agreement, Mayor Craig Greenberg’s administration allotted $150,000 to Hope Village, just 10% of the original $1.5 million the nonprofit organization had to work with starting out.
In the new agreement, Aaron Selbig, communications director for RCS, said the new agreement included a new lease, which Hope Village does not have to pay for since it’s on government-owned land in the city.
Previously, the city had paid for The Hope Village’s water, sewer and electric bills. Starting in 2025, the Village will begin paying for its own.
“We have no say or control over operations at Hope Village,” he said in a phone interview with LEO.
After some push back from residents, no new agreement for the occupancy fee has not been finalized between residents at The Hope Village and leadership.
What happens to the Villagers now?
With the new city lease in place, and just 1/10th of the money to work with than in years past, Hope Village will have to wait until next year’s budget is finalized to see what money they get in 2025.
“It’s not about trying to get money from people,” Bussey said regarding the new occupancy fee, which is currently still being worked on between leadership and Hope Village residents. “Some of our people have gotten jobs after working with us.”
Residents like Melody and Steven say no matter how much money Hope Village gets, they and other homeless people who stay there won’t see much material change.
“It all led from knocking on doors, asking for funds, volunteering for them, go work places for funds to ‘now y’all got to pay rent,’” Melody said of The Hope Village beginnings to its current situation. “They run around with hurt feelings, and the energy is all over the place. I don’t like that.”
Like Melody, Steven said he feels frustrated about not getting resources that he needs for months.
“I’ve been asking for a bike since January,” Steven said. “I’ve been telling people what they’ve been doing for months, and nobody believes me.”
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This article appears in Nov 4-19, 2024.
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