VOA Hope Center MD - Baltimore

I was at VOA of the Chesapeake from April 24th2019 to August 23rd2019 after my completing a 120 month federal sentence... it seems to be under all new management because I do not recognize any persons in the photos but my experience was not that bad but not that great I was working 60 hours a week my last couple months and I never had an issue with staff until my last 2-3 weeks then they started being petty trying to write incident reports for things like have too much cash on me etc Even went as far as trying to crump them up to 100 -200 series violations which are the highest severity so I would not be able to leave the facility to go to work so over all I would hope its gotten better but there was some really good staff mainly lower level desk staff that were very good everyday people who were always polite and courteous

The staff is rude. You can be direct and firm without being rude but I guess were trained to treat each other like garbage.Thats for you Ms Wright. You too Ms Little. Sometimes a little patience and listening skills goes a long way. It seems like they just hire anyone dont need to know how to do the job just sit up there and treat people like trash.The counselors are inept. How many times can you send and resend the same email with the same information to the same person before they receive it Its 2022 most everyone knows how emails work but not VOA staff Okay

You cant get anything done here if youre trying to re-enter back into society because not only they dont answer phone calls but also e mails which is the only tool to get a pass and get your IDs so you can either get a job or sign up for benefits and this place isnt safe at all and your constantly being treated like anything other than a human being. Furthermore drugs are all in this facility and weapons and not to mention mice infestation and the staff enforcement is very poor. Its very unsafe and the vending machines prices are way to high. Harassment by staff is a constant thing. The one star is for the facility but very poorly ran

Some of these Case Managers have the lives of these inmates at their fingertips. They dont give these inmates their passes 4 their 4 hours of freedom often times they wont even give them their passes to go to work. The reason given is they forgot. Can someone put me in contact with someone who can help.What kind of re-entry program Id this. These men are human toi

This location is the worst. The staff doesnt care. The black lady is rude. She has an attitude. The staff takes forever to let you in the building. Everyone has an attitude like you own them something. People just walk pass you dont speak or see if you need anything. Theres never anyone at the front desk on visitor side.

Halfway house case management is zero. Guys cant go search for jobs because case mangement wont do thier job.They dont help transition people back into society

The facility itself is actually very nice. They have a workout room with weight machines a gym with a basketball hoop and free laundry for residents. The problem is the staff. They dont have enough case managers to handle the clients and a number of the case managers are incompetent and lazy. There are a few exceptions to this Mr. Kruse is an excellent case manager but he too is overworked. The security staff doesnt do their job drugs are prevalent and easier to obtain then on the street. Rules arent inforced pretty much at all. There is virtually no assistance finding work housing or any other programs to get former inmates reassimilated into society.Since COVID the situation has gotten even worse there have been several outbreaks in the facility and staff has used this as a reason to prevent residents from looking for work and to do an even worse job. The outbreaks have been poorly managed. After telling the residents of my room that we were to be quarantined in a couple of hours they continued to allow us to roam the facility and even made us go get our own lunch This was in December 2020. This led to a facility wide outbreak.

The staff are unprofessional and rude they act is if you owe them something and get smart mouth with you and they even curse at you at times. I was calling to ask about my son and they dismissed me and were rude. When you ask for the supervisor they tell you they are not there or they send you to a machine where you leave a message for god knows who and that person never calls you back. This place is filthy and nasty some of the staff had covid and some of the residents got sick and they still were excepting people In my opinion they need to hire new staff and train them to be professional and not just have their mind on a pay check. Good Customer Service is the key to running a PROFESSIONAL BUSINESS. It should be someone that we as citizens can call and have something done about this poor Customer Service.

VOA is totally unorganized. Theres no real programs for progress. The staff with the exception of one or two are purely unprofessional disrespectful and stealing a paycheck. There are liers in which they write fabricated incident reports that may cause a resident to lose days employment even returned to prison. VOA doesnt deserve a rating. What they need is reconstruction.

This place is a joke if you are looking for help with needs for housing. I was also told they dont give you help with somewhere to stay unless you have income already. I told the V.O.A. associate that I just lost my job due to it folding going thru a divorce just paid several large debts which came all at once just before losing my job and the associate said thats not my problem. I also said if I had a income to sustain I wouldnt need help from V. O. A. he just looked at me and said Again thats not my problem. Its sad that when someone really needs help there are people in these positions to help but really wont or dont.