Dec 22, 2019 5 min read

When Janice Gottschalk managed Erin’s Inside Out Cafe at the First United Methodist Church of Waynesburg, which served meals to the needy, she discovered three instances of homelessness in Greene County.

The first was a woman living in her car, who Gottschalk temporarily let live in her own home in 2016.

This was the first in a series of events that led to the establishment of Mission House, a place for homeless people until they found permanent housing.

The story begins after Gottschalk’s husband died in 2015, when she said she tried to be smart with the money she received and invested it with the help of an adviser. The initial investments proved less than hoped for because she said she lost $4,000 the first quarter.

She then thought of “investing in people” instead and acquired a three-story house on Franklin Street in Waynesburg in 2016. After getting the house ready in preparation for housing the homeless, Mission House took in its first guests. They were not, however, homeless, but a 22-member chorus from Uganda called the Amani Children’s Choir who spent the night while touring the area in 2017. The choir returned in June 2019 and spent another five nights at Mission House.

The house is large enough to hold three bedrooms, plus another over the garage. The third floor is also equipped with 12 cots and twin beds. However, the most people Gottschalk ever took in at one time was eight – a woman with three children, a second woman, a man and a mother with a 16 year old son.

Gottschalk also opened her house to occasional volunteers from the Kairos Prison Ministry from the Pittsburgh area while they were in the area to serve SCI-Greene.

To find temporary residents to house, Gottschalk worked with Greene County Human Services.

“I allowed the county to place individuals (at Mission House) they had difficulty finding immediate housing for,” she said.

Gottschalk started with a 10-day maximum stay, but if the residents were “making strides” she would consider extending their stay. There was no charge to live in Mission House and utilities were included. Residents had to purchase their own food but had the use of the microwave in the kitchen. The only funding she received for support was from donations.

To maintain day-to-day operations, she depended on volunteers. One of them, a student from Waynesburg University, volunteered to do the housework.

“I told the residents I was their cheerleader,” she said. “I helped them with transportation and filling out applications for employment. Other than a grant from the Greene County Memorial Hospital Foundation in 2018-19 for utilities, I paid for the utilities out of my own pocket.”

The longest stay by a resident was an 82-day stretch in which a pregnant woman with two children and their father remained at Mission House until they found suitable housing.

Initially Gottschalk trusted the residents to conform to house rules, but in December of 2018 she and the board began requiring that new residents consent to background and drug testing before they’d be considered for admission.

Things took an abrupt turn on Oct. 11 when Gottschalk had surgery on her left hip, which left her unable to physically care for the house. As a result of her incapacity to carry on, the last resident of Mission House left on Oct. 31.

Over the past three years Mission House has been operational. Zabrina Karnes, housing outreach specialist for Greene County Human Services said she’s used Mission House as a resource for clients at least 20 times or more.

“Mission House has been a great asset to the county, and its closure leaves a big void,” Karnes said.

For the past four years, Gottschalk has had the Mission House serve as the Greene County venue for Ten Thousand Villages, described on its website as a global maker-to-market movement that breaks the cycle of generational poverty and ignites social change.

The website additionally claims that the movement is “a way for [people] to shop with intention for ethically-sourced wares and to share in the joy of empowering makers in ten thousand villages.”

The organization empowers 20,000 makers in 30 developing countries and is a pioneer of fair trade.

“We do business differently, putting people and planet first,” the website says. “That means you can trust that every handmade purchase and donation you make directly impact the life and community of its maker in a developing country.”

Each Christmas season for the past three years when there were no residents in house, Gottschalk has filled a large room on the first floor with a large variety of Ten Thousand Villages goods.

“What I find is that the makers often take things you and I would normally throw away and make useful items out of them,” she said pointing to a basket ingeniously made from discarded keys, a clip board made from computer parts and a bird house made of candy wrappers.

This year, she kicked off the Christmas gift buying season on Dec. 12, playing on the theme of “12 Business Days Before Christmas.” The shop, located at 146 W. Franklin Street in Waynesburg, will remain open to the gift-buying public through Monday.

Besides items like jewelry, ornaments, baby rattles, soaps, necklaces, candle holders, woven baskets from Uganda and more, the shop also features Fair Trade chocolates and coffee. To help feed the needy, 15% of all sales revenue is donated to Erin’s Inside Out Cafe.

“Waynesburg University used to be a Ten Thousand Villages venue until 2016 when the First Methodist Church got a call from the Pittsburgh location asking if it would like to serve as the Greene County venue,” Gottschalk said. “When the minister at the church asked if I would take it over, I said yes, and here I am today.”

Gottschalk plans to sell the home, and have this be her last season housing the Ten Thousand Villages.

For more information on Ten Thousand Villages at the Mission House, phone 724 998-1302.