THE DENVER POST
New Genesis CHALLENGES HOMELESS TO EARN THEIR KEEP, BY DICK KRECK

"It was heinous," said Page Peary, Executive Director for New Genesis, a "transitional community" for homeless men. It was a poorly lighted, cramped dungeon where a few dozen men slept on mats on the floor of the 100-year-old church's basement to get in out of the cold, then were sent on their way the next morning.

Today, the shelter serves 2,500 men annually in a bright space kept ship-shape, in part, by its residents, who must help with domestic chores to keep the center running. In the city's only shelter that requires residents to hold a full-time job and to pay their way en route to what they hope will be a new start.

New Genesis recently began a similar, small pilot program for homeless women without children.

In the New Genesis program, men go through a 12-week series of steps, beginning with an evaluation. Some of those who show up at the shelter have mental problems, many are addicted to drugs, and more than a few have been guests at the city's detox unit so many times that they are referred to as "frequent fliers." About a third drop out in the first 45 days.

The next step is workshops to relearn social skills - support groups, drug and alcohol counseling, job training and meal preparation - because many of the residents have led solitary lives for two years or more.

The ultimate goal is "helping men rebuild their accountability," according to Peary. To do this, the program maintains 20 apartments and a house "where they practice for six months to a year the things they learned here. Things as basic as getting a checking account or getting a driver's license."

"We challenge them to get back to work. They have to work to stay here. We have one man who is making $27 an hour as a drywaller."

Peary, 54, went to Vietnam with the military in 1970 and worked with addicted GI's. He wound up in Germany, taking correspondence courses from the University of Maryland, then when to Boston University for graduate work in psychology. Later he ran drug and alcohol programs in Washington, D.C., and Florida.

Peary, who since 1997 has been running New Genesis, has a hard-eyed view of the plight of the men he helps. "This is where the most impact, I think, can be made. I don't want sympathy for the homeless. I want empathy for their struggle."

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