Market Street Mission helps unhoused men

Market Street Mission-Sussex County, a faith-based nonprofit organization, provides refuge and healing for unhoused men in the Newton area.

Established in 2021, it is a branch of the Market Street Mission headquarters and main shelter in Morristown, which has been assisting unhoused men since 1889.

Services provided at 274 Spring St., Newton, include hot meals, hot showers, a safe place to sleep and daily spiritual guidance for unhoused men who enter between 4 and 6 p.m. and follow the rules of the shelter. This includes a screening process for all who arrive.

Those who are intoxicated cannot enter nor can they drink or use drugs once they arrive.

Market Street Mission-Sussex County holds a Sunday dinner service on the first Sunday of each month where the public may share a free meal.

Showers are available to the public from 1 to 3 p.m. daily.

Different fires

For Jeffrey Lukawski, the shelter’s site manager, the rules help keep the shelter a place of healing and positive change. Nearly all of the unhoused men who the organization helps struggle with some form of addiction.

Lukawski was a Newark firefighter for 20 years, so service has been a constant in his life. Serving others has revealed the path God has laid out for him, he said. “I’m still putting out fires, but it’s different.”

He explained that each man who comes to the shelter enters an informal agreement with the staff. Men who are willing to follow the rules and be open with the staff tend to benefit from relationships that offer more specialized resources.

The mission extends a hand to all who enter but it is up to them to grab it, Lukawski said.

Staff members communicate with one another about each man’s individual journey. That is how they are able to find those who are serious about taking the next step in recovery.

This next step is often the Life Change Drug Recovery Program at the headquarters in Morristown. It is a long-term residential addiction recovery program designed to surround the men who undertake it with support and accountability.

The program gives men the chance to grow and overcome their trauma in a safe space centered in faith and healing, allowing them to regain the skills they will need to maintain their recovery.

The program, which typically lasts eight to 10 months but can be longer based on individual circumstances, also employs faith-based and spiritual teachings. The mission staff believes that these tools will give men the strength and purpose to endure the trials of recovery.

“If you’re ready, all you’ve got to do is go and get it,” said Barry Evelyn, overnight supervisor at Market Street Mission-Sussex County and a graduate of the Life Change program.

Started as intern

Evelyn explained that once he graduated from the program, he was offered a two-year unpaid internship at the Morristown location, which turned into a full-time position.

He is working to become a certified peer counselor and attend college with the goal of working as a drug and alcohol counselor.

Evelyn said he has found true fulfillment in using his story to empower others to make similar changes, a feeling he first experienced when he shared his story on a local radio station.

His story was turned into a documentary called “Barry’s Story.”

His experience gives him a unique perspective that can help those at the shelter in a way that many others can’t.

“I’ve walked in their shoes,” said Rich Saltis, another graduate of the program and staff member in Newton.

He was an intern before working full-time at the mission. That only happens when positions are available, he noted.

The mission helps program graduates find jobs and maintains regular contact with them.

Saltis also said the mission helped give him more freedom, for which he is grateful. He relishes all the things he can do with the structure that comes with sobriety.

He hopes to pursue a commercial driver’s license when he has time, and he credits his faith and the mission with helping to put him in a position where such goals are attainable.

Lukawski said working with the mission gives him and his colleagues the chance to “fulfill the Lord’s teaching to love your neighbor as yourself.”