One step at a time, Falls native talks helping the homeless

Apr. 20—As he prepared to write his book about homelessness, John Loss conducted interviews with 13 people who had experience living on the streets in the City of Niagara Falls.

Looking back at those interviews, Loss, a retired teacher, said he was most struck to discover that five of his interview subjects were former students of his when he taught in the Lewiston-Porter School District.

"It was just kind of a surprise and a shock to see them and some of the conditions they were in knowing what they were like when I had them as students," he said.

Their situations and their experiences, along with the others shared in the book "...Not Always Homeless," reflect a couple of the takeaways Loss has come to understand as he continues to think about ways to deal with homelessness in the community.

He noted that it's hard for a person to get any lower than when they are homeless. He said it's also the case that while many feel they are immune to such a condition, in reality, it can happen to anyone.

"We are all created in God's image and he loves all of us the same way," Loss said. "They're human. They are no different than you and I. Somewhere in their lives, things happened to them, many of which were beyond their control."

Loss, 83, was born and raised in Niagara Falls. After graduating from high school, he worked for three and a half years for the contracting company Merritt-Chapman & Scott as it helped build the intakes for the Robert Moses Power Project. After graduating from Buffalo State College, Loss became an industrial arts teacher and spent 37 years working for the Silver Creek Central School District before moving back to Niagara Falls. He later taught at Lew-Port before accepting a position with Niagara-Orleans BOCES which allowed him to work as a technology teacher in several area districts, including Lew-Port, Niagara-Wheatfield and North Tonawanda.

"There never was a morning when I got up that I did not want to go to school," he said. "I loved teaching."

He also enjoyed writing and felt compelled to write a book about a common problem in the Falls — homelessness.

"I just saw these people around the City of Niagara Falls and I knew that they had a story to tell because they were not born homeless," he said.

To learn more about the subject, Loss approached four local entities that deal with the homeless population — Community Missions, Heart, Love & Soul food pantry, the Magdalene Project and the Niagara Rescue Mission. At the urging of a representative from the organization, Loss started volunteering at Community Missions where he spent every Monday for five months helping to prepare and serve meals for homeless people.

"It was for the people who came to get to know me and feel comfortable if I asked them to be interviewed. I loved it," he said.

Loss arranged interviews with 25 subjects, with 13 of the accounts ending up in his book.

The stories included the likes of "Debbie," a homeless woman who "went from a good life to a drug addict and homeless in the blink of an eyelash" and "Shawn," a 43-year-old who dropped out of high school in the 10th grade.

All of his subjects came from varying backgrounds and had different reasons and circumstances that contributed to their homelessness. "Debbie," for example, was displaced from her home due to a fire. Others struggled to find or maintain work or with various addictions.

'I had a wonderful time in writing the book, learning about people at a gut level," he said. "When you are homeless, you have nothing. You are at the mercy of everything, finding food, finding a place to sleep."

While there are public agencies and non-profit organizations in place to assist homeless people, Loss said he feels the system needs work, especially when it comes to providing quality, long-term help to individuals who are experiencing mental health or addiction issues.

"The system is not user- or people-friendly, I don't think, and that's just firsthand experience, seeing the people that are trapped in it,' he said. "I think they are trapped in it. There's no plan to rehabilitate, to re-educate, to job train people to help them be on their own again."

That's one of the reasons why Loss helped form a charity to help assist the homeless called Help and Hope for Homeless. The charity operates under the concept that: "You never stand so tall as when you stoop so low to raise up another human being." Funds raised by the charity are used to cover the cost of providing homeless individuals with vocational training through Orleans/Niagara BOCES. The program, Loss said, is designed to be effective by focusing on helping one person at a time.

He said one recent success story involved a Falls woman who received financial support to cover her education expenses and the cost of her state board exams. Today, Loss said, the formerly homeless woman works as a license practical nurse at Niagara Falls Memorial Medical Center.

"You help one person at a time, piece-by-piece," he said. How do you get going? You take one step at a time."

Loss believes the same approach can work even with what he describes as the more "hardcore" cases — those homeless individuals who prefer to go it alone on the streets rather than accept assistance at area shelters or in any sort of program.

"These hardcore people, with intensive one-on-one care and treatment, I think can turn out to be better than they are now," he said. "I firmly believe that."

Copies of the book "...Not Always Homeless" are available for purchase on Amazon.

To donate or for more information about Help and Hope for Homeless, Inc., call 716-773-9781 or email at homelesshelpersnfny@gmail.com.