Elizabeth Tilley creates Royal Haven home for men with mental illness - cleveland.com

Elizabeth Tilley, with residents Demetrius, left, and David. (Chuck Crow/The Plain Dealer)

These men each have long lists of health problems: high blood pressure, diabetes, incontinence and dementia due to stroke, visual impairment, bipolar disease and personality disorders.

Some have burned bridges with family members who, fed up with their erratic behavior, asked Tilley to take them in. All probably would be homeless, or in jail, if it weren’t for Royal Haven or another one of the nearly 1,000 adult facilities in Ohio that shelter people with a range of mental health issues. 

Tilley loves her residents, even when they curse at her or act like stubborn children. They refuse to bathe, get angry when their feces-smeared clothes are thrown away, and steal one another’s  dessert just to be ornery. 

“After they do it, you know they’re sorry,” she said. Bad behavior is grounds for eviction, but she said she could never actually do it. 

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