Parkersburg Elks Lodge 198 Secretary Jay Perkins, left, presents a $2,000 check to House to Home Director of Operations Steve Belisky to support a program to help the local homeless population be able to get identification by obtaining certified copies of birth certificates and Social Security cards, things they would need in trying to secure employment. (Photo by Brett Dunlap)

PARKERSBURG — A program to help homeless individuals in the area get valid identification to be better prepared to seek employment in the future got a boost Monday.

Parkersburg Elks Lodge 198 made a $2,000 donation to House to Home for the identification program. Lodge Secretary Jay Perkins presented a check to House to Home’s Director of Operations Steve Belisky at the lodge’s Green Street location.

“We are helping them with an ID program for homeless veterans and otherwise homeless folks to help them with future expectations of finding jobs and housing,” Perkins said. “Sometimes IDs are hard for those folks to come by, and we are just trying to assist their organization as best we can in curbing the problem of homelessness here in the Mid-Ohio Valley.”

The lodge applied for a grant through the Elks National Foundation for community investment. House to Home was looking to start an ID program and the lodge had a remaining grant left for this fiscal year and decided to help the day shelter get its program going.

“We decided that this was the best place to put it and help them with that because we are a very civic-minded organization,” Perkins said.

Belisky hopes to have the program up and running within the next week or two.

The program involves securing a certified copy of an individual’s birth certificate and Social Security cards or getting a new Social Security card issued.

“A lot of our unhoused friends, they don’t have that stuff,” Belisky said. “The first step for us is to find out exactly where they were born and all that so we can begin the process of ordering a birth certificate.

“Once we get a birth certificate, it moves into getting them their Social Security card if they don’t have that.”

Officials with House to Home will take individuals down to the Social Security office and apply for that card. They can then make an appointment at the Division of Motor Vehicles to get either an ID card or a driver’s license.

Some individuals may have had a driver’s license or ID card, but either lost it or it expired and they did not have the money available to get it renewed.

“One of the biggest barriers that I have identified with the people who come into the shelter is they don’t have their ID or their vital records,” Belisky said.

As a result, many continue doing what they have been doing whether they are abusing substances or not helping themselves as they don’t have the resources, he said.

“Getting this up and running is our way of saying ‘We’re here and we are going to help you. Let’s do it,'” Belisky said.

If the shelter is able to get someone their birth certificate or Social Security card, they will keep them on file at the shelter so they don’t run the risk of losing it and having to go through the whole process all over again.

“This check is going to help us get this program started,” Belisky said. “A lot of the people coming in are missing those documents, and this is just helping us (get) them one step forward to getting off the streets, getting a job and being productive.

“That is what we do at House to Home, get them those resources and get them out of these dark times they are in.”

Since opening their new location on Seventh Street last fall, Belisky said they have been a lot busier.

They are having around 1,800 contacts a month and facilitating around 600 showers a month.

“It has been working out pretty good,” Belisky said.