By Victoria Mullen, WKTV VOICES

victoria@wktv.org

Heartside Neighborhood in downtown Grand Rapids has a rich, colorful history. In the 1850s, it was a shanty town, home to immigrants who were new to America. The area grew quickly—at first small houses dotted the landscape, then commercial and industrial businesses, hotels, a railroad depot, stores and apartment buildings. Today, it’s a historic district containing many original buildings, 55 of which are historically significant.

The area’s renaissance is mirrored in modern apartment buildings with both market-rate and income-based units; high-end condos; parking structures; offices; a feast of food establishments; a cat café; art studios; and recently built Studio Park, which adds movie theaters, more restaurants, more offices, more apartments, and a music venue to the mix. Heartside is becoming denser by the day.

There’s a palpable tension in the air as newcomers and longtime residents alike struggle to co-exist with a younger, more affluent crowd and the age-old problem of gentrification. The place is dynamic and vibrant but also plagued by criminal activity—vandalism, drug activity, trespassing, prostitution and the like—and an ever-growing transient population.

As services and resources increase in number, organizations like Dwelling Place, Heartside Ministries, Mel Trotter Ministries, Guiding Light, Dégagé, and others have been inundated. Grand Rapids is known as a “destination city” for homelessness as West Michigan police departments and judges send parolees here, and Mel Trotter routinely receives folks who have been given a one-way bus ticket to downtown Grand Rapids by missions, churches, and families in other cities across the Midwest.

VOICES has hosted several people who live and work in ever-evolving Heartside. Lisa Blackburn, Victoria Kool, Tommie Wallace, Larry Dean White, and Dr. Mark Vander Meer are just a few of the folks who shared their stories recently.

Listen to their voices—and others—on the VOICES Facebook page.

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Dwelling Place connects people to programs and resources that can help folks become self-sufficient and find affordable housing. The nonprofit advocates for the neighborhood to make it safer—like street lights so people feel comfortable when they’re out at night and accessible sidewalks so children can easily walk to school. The nonprofit also unites neighbors and strives to bring in businesses that enrich the community.

Lisa Blackburn, Resident Services Coordinator at Dwelling Place, has fond memories of the Heartside District; it was her old stomping grounds when she was a kid growing up in the 1970s.

“Back then, it wasn’t called Heartside,” said Blackburn. “There were a lot of old, abandoned buildings. I remember playing around the train tracks—I may or may not have thrown a rock through a window. It feels good now as an employee in this area to see how it has grown.”

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Artist Victoria Kool lives in Heartside. Her story, while unique, shares commonalities with others who live in the neighborhood: She was abused as a child, and she struggles with mental illness and addiction. She first attempted suicide at the tender age of 8.

“My parents had threatened to kill me if I told anyone about the abuse,” Kool said. “I had given up on life. My mom was an alcoholic. From a very young age, I took care of my siblings. I’ve had adult responsibilities since I was 5.”

Kool began having flashbacks in her 40s and 50s. She remembers standing in a closet, counting the stripes on the carpet to pass the time. 

“It was either the closet or the attic or the basement; I spent a lot of my childhood in my own little world,” she said. “Until the age of 18, I felt invisible because of the trauma.”

No one believed her, not even the police. As a kindergartener, Kool knew that ‘Policeman Ralph’ wouldn’t help. 

“I was a cynical kid,” Kool said.

A high-school acquaintance thought Kool had an ideal, well-adjusted family. But it was all a facade.

Kool had planned to attend college and then start a career in social work. Those hopes were dashed when family members told her she was expected to marry. She had children and for many years played the role of little homemaker. She struggled to cope with the flashbacks.

“I had no memory of the abuse and ended up with multiple personalities to compartmentalize the trauma,” said Kool. “My family didn’t want me to talk about it and threatened to silence me. I fled my marriage.”

She sought refuge with a friend, but Kool’s ex-husband threatened the woman, and Kool was asked to leave.

At one point, Kool drove to Florida, where her 4-year-old car’s engine blew. She lived in a homeless shelter for a week, until a church bought her a plane ticket to fly back to Grand Rapids.

“I ended up in a recovery house with women who had just gotten out of prison,” Kool explained. “I had a mental breakdown and got kicked out after a month. Then I called Mel Trotter and started in their emergency shelter—up at 6am, out at 8am, can’t get back in until 6pm. I dragged my suitcase around all day. It really opened my eyes to the reality of homelessness—a lot of mental illness, addiction, lack of a support network.”

Mel Trotter Ministries has served the greater Grand Rapids area since 1900. Founded by Melvin Ernest Trotter, a former alcoholic, the organization was first located at 955 Canal Street. Offering substance abuse counseling and other services, the mission moved to its present location at 225 Commerce Ave. SW in 1968.

The reasons for homelessness are many—domestic violence that forces someone to flee; an illness or injury that causes loss of employment and income (eviction is often close behind); addiction; mental illness; rising rents and lack of affordable housing; the list goes on. 

“Homelessness is exhausting,” Kool said. “Living in a neighborhood with so many homeless people around me—I had to be prepared. I had grown up judgmental, with an air of superiority, and I had to deal with that so I could adjust and coexist with folks who were different from me. The diversity was new to me.”

Kool sees many people going through the same struggles as they try to somehow make a better life for themselves.

“Living in Heartside, I am attuned to those who have suffered abuse,” she said. “I have a sense of who has been through a bad situation; I have compassion and empathy now versus being judgmental. Most people who have addictions have been abused. A lot of the people here in Heartside are mentally ill, too.”

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Muralist Tommie Wallace (aka Town Hall Auk Med) lives in an income-based apartment made possible by Dwelling Place. Originally from Kalamazoo, he came to Grand Rapids after seeing a commercial for ITT Technical Institute (now defunct).

“I stayed with a cousin until his wife felt I needed to move on, and that’s how I ended up in Heartside,” Wallace said. “I liked the area, had a lot of fun. I stayed here because it’s near a bus line, the library, the store.”

Wallace created his first mural at the site of Goodrich and Commerce. 

“People would stop and talk to me as I worked,” he said. “I met such interesting people; some bought me lunch; one lady came by and brought me an umbrella as I worked in the rain.”

Wallace lived in Washington DC for a time.

“DC is different from the Midwest,” he said. “The difference is friendliness—you don’t see it much in DC, people keep to themselves, don’t want to get into conversations; I had to adapt because I was used to saying, ‘Good morning.’ People shun you there for that.”

After graduating from ITT Tech, Wallace got a job working for an airline company. As his income increased, he moved from an income-based apartment at The Weston to a market-rate residence at Goodrich Apartments. He lived there until being laid off after 9/11. 

“I came back to The Weston and I have been there over 20 years now. Heartside is my home. I know people here, they know me. I get a good feeling when people recognize me as an artist.”

A recovering addict, Wallace attends meetings at Heartside Ministry every Friday. Heartside Ministry serves people who live in the margins of Grand Rapids. It strives to provide basic needs; in addition, it offers a GED program, art gallery, yoga class and chapel for people to practice their faith. 

Wallace meets a lot of people who are older, ill or injured.

“They’re newcomers to these issues and don’t know what to do,” Wallace said.

Wallace has served on the board of directors for Dwelling Place since 2005. He likes seeing the various development projects in downtown Grand Rapids.

“So many different people are coming down, young people, rich people. Residents were afraid that they would be pushed out.”

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“I got the ministry in prison,” said Arkansas native Larry Dean White. The self-described ‘redneck Christian minister’, shares his love of God with the folks who people Heartside.

“I studied for six years; my textbooks are the old and new testaments,” he said.

White sat down to share his story with Dr. Mark Vander Meer, a pastor and founder of Community Recovery International, a nonprofit organization that helps address family, individual, addictive, marital, and mental health issues of all types locally and overseas.

White thinks there is too much judgment on the outside.

“Instead of putting people down, help them up, like Jesus did,” he said. “People should be treated with respect.”

Vander Meer agreed.

“There needs to be more ‘heart’ in ‘Heartside’,” he said.

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