After Mike Milholland’s first day volunteering at the Oxford Street Inn, he didn’t know if he would be back for a second one.

It was 1984. He had just arrived in Syracuse from Buffalo, N.Y., and walked into the cold, dirty Oxford Street Inn. He remembered the distinct smell, the poor conditions of the beds and one lone, insufficient heater.

He still remembers how one of the co-workers treated the homeless people there.

“I’m standing in this area and somebody came up to this volunteer I’m working with, and the volunteer just kicks him in the stomach and knocks him down,” said Milholland, the Inn’s program manager. “I was thinking, ‘Is this really what it’s like out here?’ I asked myself, ‘Is this really going to be it?’”

Twenty-nine years later, on The Oxford Street Inn’s last day, Milholland said he is leaving the shelter with a sense of gratitude.

The Oxford Street Inn, which has been in operation since 1979, opened its doors to the homeless community in Syracuse for the last time on Monday. On Tuesday, the shelter will relocate to a new building on South Clinton Street, and be renamed the Catholic Charities Men’s Shelter. The inn is known for its open-door policy, and supporters of the shelter hope the new facility will help those in need battle their addictions.

Since the shelter’s opening, Milholland said it has had a policy that accepts anyone who comes for help, regardless of whether they are sober. This policy is different from other homeless shelters in the area, he said.

“We’ve never turned anyone away because, even if we’ve maxed out, it always seems preferable to get someone off the streets and out of the cold, even if they end up sleeping on a bench,” Milholland said.

Although the shelter has allowed drug addicts and alcoholics to stay at night, Milholland said the shelter does not support their behavior. He said the shelter is simply providing “an ultimate safety net” for members of the homeless community who are not quite ready to begin rehabilitation.

Milholland said he has personally seen the homeless population increase in Syracuse. When he first started, he said, the inn averaged 35 residents a night. Recently it has averaged nearly 100. This can sometimes lead to overcrowding with the inn’s 90 beds and eight cots.

District Three Councilor Bob Dougherty commended the inn for accepting those who have dealt with substance abuse.

“There’s more to it than just a place to sleep,” he said. “There’s camaraderie with the staff and people who are willing to offer you direction with your life.”

The Oxford Street Inn has played a significant role in Syracuse’s homeless community because of its open policy, said Sheila Austin, the coordinator of the St. James Emmaus Ministry.

Austin said the church also contributes to helping the homeless in Syracuse. Volunteers go to the Oxford Inn and provide meals, haircuts and other resources, she said.

Austin said about six times each month, church volunteers feed at about 140 people at the inn, some of which are first encounters, but many of which are familiar faces. She said she estimates there are roughly 450 homeless people in Syracuse.

“We’re reaching a large number of people just through what we do at that shelter alone,” she said.

With the shelter’s new location on South Clinton Street, it is helping the homeless by moving them closer to other resources, Austin said.

She said because the new homeless shelter is in a more central area, it will be easier for the homeless to reach the Rescue Mission for meals, the bus station for transportation and the Samaritan Center for services.

Milholland, the Oxford Street Inn’s manager, said the new building will have more bathrooms, more showers and more beds for homeless residents.

He added that the new location will also have increased security, therefore preventing dangerous people from entering during the night.

Milholland said he recalled a night in the past when a homeless man entered the shelter holding a baseball bat studded with nails and wrapped with barbed wire. These situations will be prevented in the new facility, he said.

Dougherty, the district councilor, said the homeless community in Syracuse has often been problematic for both businesses and residents. He described the area around the Oxford Street Inn as ones “you didn’t want to go through often,” adding the homeless often provoke fear.

With the Oxford Street Inn’s location change, Dougherty said residents have already expressed concerns about the increased amount of the homeless by the bus station.

“It tends to be a rougher scenario at the Oxford Inn because they come in and they’re messed up,” he said about those who come to the inn. “But even if someone is addicted to alcohol or drugs, they still need a place to sleep.”

The shelter’s open policy toward alcoholics and drug addicts will remain the same in the new facility, but there will be changes to the rehabilitation services, Milholland said.

He said the shelter will return to its original mission of providing for those who have no other options. This idea lost its scope throughout the Oxford Street Inn’s history because of patrons who abused its open-door style of hospitality.

Milholland said the discernment process between visitors who “really need to be here” and those “screwing around” will become much faster.

He added that the new building will make this easier with a more developed staff area for counseling and a better environment to encourage volunteers.

Reflecting on the Oxford Inn’s almost 34-year history, Milholland said: “I’ll miss everything, I’m quite sure. But quite honestly, the best of all that the Oxford represents, what we have to tried to do here, that’s coming with us.”

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Published on September 24, 2013 at 2:43 am

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