George Vaughn has made some mistakes.

He was in prison for more than 10 years for burglary. He had some beers just before Thanksgiving, which kept him out of a local homeless shelter.

Before that, he got drunk enough to fall down and scrape up his face.

That doesn’t mean he wants to be homeless. And it doesn’t mean he doesn’t have anything to say about homelessness.

“We could deter crime if we put more money into this,” Vaughn said as he looked around the Wet Shelter at First Step Services Inc., 1017 63rd St.

“...You want to curb that? Put more money into the homeless shelters. Make this a priority. This place has got to stay open. It has to.”

Nowhere else to go

Vaughn was one of about a dozen people who spent the night recently at the Wet Shelter, which, since November, has been offering a place to stay for homeless people who are drunk, high, mentally ill or simply have nowhere else to go.

Vaughn, 52, a general laborer from Kenosha, sat on a folding chair eating an ice cream cup as he explained how he got there.

“In better days, I had a life. I had a job. Unfortunately, all I’ve got is this,” he said.

Please don’t misunderstand.

“This First Step here is a miracle,” he explained. “... Where else would I go if this place wasn’t open? On the street. If this place wasn’t here I would probably have did another crime, because this place is here I choose not to. That’s the bottom line. I choose not to because I had an option.

“This gives you a better opportunity, outside of a criminal opportunity. This is a helpful program,” Vaughn said.

Still, his situation makes him hopeless.

A permanent, single site shelter would help.

“If you had a base, a permanent place so you could look for work — but you have to have a base to go from. If you don’t have a base to go from you’re not going to make it. You’re going to be homeless. You’re going to be bummed out.”

But it’s going to take more than a shelter to keep people from being homeless.

Demand skyrocketing

Ivan, a 49-year-old former security guard, agreed.

He came to the shelter because, although he has been working, he has not made enough money to pay rent.

“There’s just no jobs here that are paying because all the jobs have left. A single man, a single woman cannot support themselves off $7 an hour,” said Ivan, who did not want his last name used.

He is not alone.

Since last year, the number of visitors at First Step has nearly doubled to 549 unduplicated guests; 302 people came to First Step as of November 2008. She didn’t have a breakdown, but based on what she sees every day, Tracy Sanchez said the number of families coming to First Step has tripled.

“I’ll be honest,” said Sanchez, founder and CEO of First Step. “We have a handful of people who chose to be homeless. They’ve given up hope. But not everyone who comes here chooses to be homeless ... It’s impossible for people to find jobs right now.”

Those who can find work often find temporary positions. Just as they get an apartment, the job ends or is cut.

“The majority of them are working 40 hours a week and bringing home $240 a week,” Sanchez said. “We see that a lot here.”

And it’s not just the working poor coming to First Step.

“Carpenters. Plumbers. One was a stockbroker who helps everyone with their taxes. Veterans. College graduates. Homelessness isn’t always a stereotype,” Sanchez said.

“We’ve had a lot of rental foreclosures, where landlords have not told (tenants) that the house is foreclosed. They have a 24-hour notice, so they’re losing not only their residences but also everything they own.”

Just needs training

In the two months since Ivan lost his home, he has grown frustrated with people’s attitudes about homelessness.

“What they need to understand is this could happen to anyone at any time. Show some empathy! The economy is not just hitting us. It’s hitting everybody. And they are one or two paychecks away from this,” he said.

“The message has got to get out there before people’s attitudes will change ... If the community gets involved with it, we can make changes.”

His suggestion?

“Get the Fortune 500 companies here to start job training,” Ivan said. “There’s money here. I enjoy working. I want to work. If there were more cooperation with major corporations here, this homeless problem could be almost eliminated.”

“There are people here who are not stupid, not retarded, not on drugs,” he added. “... (They) need training.”