Danny Jones says that Loving Arms Shelter helped put him on the right track. (Photos credit: Facebook/Danny Jones)
Danny “Virgo” Jones lived homeless in Baltimore for nine years. Ever since he was eight years old, his family has been homeless. At 15, he struck out on his own and found a home at Loving Arms.
“I had nowhere to go,” Jones, now 20, to the AFRO. “My mom was dealing with some stuff with herself and it was hard for her to keep her own space so we would always be in and out of different spaces.
“I got to Loving Arms and they took care of me. At first I was a little uncomfortable around a bunch of strangers, but somehow they pulled it off to make me feel so comfortable. Everybody was warm. I had structure,” said Jones.
Loving Arms is a basic care, emergency shelter located in Windsor Hills for unaccompanied homeless, throwaway, and runaway youth. It was founded by Cindy Williams in 2009 and is the only federally-funded shelter in the state of Maryland that exclusively houses young people under 18 who are homeless.
The shelter offers crisis intervention, life skills education, community services and prevention education for youth and adults, and individual and family counseling. Williams says the preferred outcome is family reunification, but the crippling effects of poverty on families and faulty public systems still at work, Williams contends, the portal of homelessness will continue to widen in Baltimore City.
“The foster care system is clogged and has lost its focus,” Williams told the AFRO. In cases like Jones’ there are no public support services set up for families who just don’t have the means to support their children–or themselves.
Williams has seen plenty of cases where the parent or caregiver is also homeless and the children are turned away from the Department of Social Services. The foster care system is not equipped to handle situations like this, she said, which have unfortunately become all too common place.
“These young people have basically been thrown away,” said Williams. “If we don’t get a grip when it comes to supporting parents and strengthening families, we are not going to end homelessness in this city.”
Loving Arms is also a place of refuge for youth who become homeless after aging out of or running away from the foster care system–those youth who become homeless when their juvenile status expires and the subsidy checks stop.
“These people are paid to take care of these kids. Their job is to prepare them for independence, help them transition into something stable–not warehouse them until their 18th birthday,” said Williams.
Loving Arms is funded to house young people for up to 21 days. But for the most part, young people can stay as long as it takes for the staff there to pool together resources to transition residents into a viable, permanent living situations. For Jones, it took a little over three months.
Today, the self-proclaimed musical genius is renting a room, attending Baltimore City Community College, works as a party promoter and is thriving on his own. “After 21 days I ain’t know what to say to [ Mrs. Williams],” said Jones. “She knew I still had nowhere to go, and she let me stay. She figured some things out for me and every since then I’ve been fine. I’ve been better than I’ve ever been in my life.”
Jones is headed to Morgan State University to live on campus next fall. He’s not sure whether he’ll major in psychology or business management, but he knows he’s going to be an entrepreneur.
“I’m still dealing with myself, trying to gain confidence to a level where I can really go out in the world and be myself–not ashamed of where I came from,” he said.
Williams says she will continue to fight the good fight if it means more success stories like Jones’ but is tired of butting heads with a broken system. In 2015, Williams acquired two additional properties to extend Loving Arms’ reach throughout the Baltimore. One shelter is not enough.
“Our kids deserve stability and permanency in their lives,” said Williams,” they need to be loved on–hard.”