Robert Hollenbeck

ONEONTA - Robert Hollenbeck credits the OFO homeless shelter for putting his life back together.

Hollenbeck, a lanky 6-foot-2-inch 33-year-old, was one of the first to move into the much-disputed shelter when Opportunities For Otsego opened the Depew Street building in January.

More than a year ago, he was living in Milford, working for ARC, but he lost his job, he said.

"I was out of work for a year, couldn't find a job to sustain my bills," he said."My family was strapped and couldn't help me."

A gallbladder surgery complicated matters as his health insurance had run out, he said.
...
Hollenbeck, a 1990 Gilbertsville-Mount Upton Central School graduate, said he sold just about everything he owned throughout the year and still couldn't make his rent.In January, about the same time he was evicted, he landed a night-shift job at New York Environmental Services in Oneonta.

"When I got into the shelter, I was down and out.I had nothing," he said."They gave me hope - hope that there are kind people out there who do care."

Hollenbeck has things to live for, one goal - to have his daughter, Jenifer, live with him.

She'll be turning 5 this month in Charlotte, N.C., and he said he's seen her once in the last two years.

"She looked up at me and said 'How's it going, Dad?'" Hollenbeck said.

Then he broke into tears.

"I'm trying to rebuild my life, but it would be so much sweeter with my daughter," he said between breaths.

Hollenbeck said he watched Jenifer go into foster care when her mother was deemed incompetent.

He was on the verge of getting custody when an aunt stepped forward in 2001, he said.

"She went into family court, had money, dressed to the nines and they ruled in her favor," he said."It ruined my family.I lost my daughter to a maternal aunt in North Carolina."

But Hollenbeck said his two-month stay in the shelter turned his life around.

Like the spring's gradual creep over the winter snow, he said, a life change is "a slow and agonizing process."

"They sheltered me from the pressures of what was going on in my life," he said."They helped me find a place of my own and guided me in the right direction."

Shelter officials said Hollenbeck is perhaps their best success story.

He said he wants to get back to Depew Street soon, this time as a volunteer.

"Everybody's got problems," he said."They help you to take responsibility and start from the beginning."

Now, a month after Hollenbeck left the shelter, he said he's doing much better.

He rents a room on Maple Street, works nights for the environmental disposal company and volunteers evenings at The Lord's Table, a feeding program in Oneonta.

He's also starting a business, Dream Partners International, with an Internet-based purchasing group.

In a recent speech to a Hartwick College class on volunteering, Hollenbeck said he focused on the socioeconomics of area employment.

"There's no manufacturing in Oneonta other than Corning," he said."And with the price of gas, you have to live nearby."

He said with the Oneonta economy so dependent on college students, "We're going to need factory-based work."

"You'll be OK if you know how to make a drink in Oneonta," he said."In this area, salary-wise, jobs are not plentiful.You can't make ends meet at $7.50 an hour.Employers don't seem to understand that."

But Hollenbeck said despite all the setbacks, he's got his life on track again and is working toward his dream.

"I want custody of my daughter - without a doubt," he said.