MOUNT VERNON — There is no single cause to blame for homelessness and, sometimes, the issue is complicated.
“Oftentimes we find that if they are younger people,” said Joy Harris, executive director of Interchurch Social Services, “they have either had a fight with someone they were staying with, or mom and dad are trying to make them take responsibility for themselves by making them leave home.
“Their stories vary, just as people vary. I do sometimes believe they have made ‘bad’ choices, but unless they’ve had guidance in their earlier lives, they may not know what is a good choice or an appropriate choice. But who am I to make that judgment?” Harris asked.
“We see different aspects [of homelessness],” said Roger Shooter, director of Knox County Job & Family Services. “We have four divisions; we have a lot of people coming in for [prevention, retention and contingency] federal funding, to pay their mortgage. They’re in danger of losing their house. Or maybe people need steel-toed work boots for their job, but they can’t afford them. Sometimes we can help with that.”
Shooter doesn’t believe that all homeless people have caused their own problems.
“I think a lot of it is, ‘There but for fortune go you or I,’” he said.
“There is probably more homelessness in Knox County than what people think,” said Gloria Parsisson, administrator of the Children and Family Services Division at KCJ&FS. “Here ... they stay with friends or family. They kind of bounce around until they get a little more stable.
“The majority of it, I would say, has to do with financial stability. People are living paycheck to paycheck. If there’s an illness or a change in relationships, they’re suddenly vulnerable. They are well-intentioned people, but homeless happens for a variety of reasons.”
Aimee Frye, Children and Family Services Division Program Specialist at KCJ&FS, offered another perspective.
“We talk a lot about the culture of poverty. I think a lot of people live beyond their means because they want to appear to be better off ... or they want things for their kids or for themselves,” she said.
“I think people run out of options,” added Shooter. “That’s why you see payday loan places.”
“People get frustrated with budgeting and skimping by,” said Parsisson. “And some people are not good planners. It’s not a skill they have, and it’s not a skill that’s easily learned. Then there are consequences.”
But sometimes, all a homeless person needs is a chance.
“Three years ago, Knox County was invited by the Osteopathic Heritage Foundation to participate in the Rural Housing Initiative, to develop a 10-year plan to address homelessness,” said Harris. “The reason this was being done is that homelessness looks a lot different in rural areas than it does in an urban community. What we tend to have here is ‘couch surfing,’ people we refer to as ‘couch nomads,’ moving from friend’s house to friend’s house and to relatives’, a week here and a week there.
“It’s our opinion that the problems they have and the feelings they endure are because they are homeless. There are people here in town, including politicians,” Harris continued, “who will argue that these people are not homeless because they have a roof over their heads, but moving from place to place, never knowing when the person they’re staying with is going to ask them to move, results in the same issues as actually living on the street.”
Harris said Interchurch was invited to participate in the second phase of the OHF plan, which will include the implementation of the Knox County plan. A special program for female victims of domestic violence and their children also exists, and it appears to be making a difference.
“Interchurch is the financial agent for the Rural Housing Initiative for Southeast and Central Ohio,” Harris said. “Many times we had to turn women away ... so we decided to develop a program that would allow us to house people who have experienced domestic violence, and provide them with some rent subsidy. Right now we have seven women and their children housed at various sites. We’re very pleased with how it’s going. At this point, all the women are starting to earn an income and starting to get back on their feet. We work with them to develop plans for self-sufficiency. We provide them with a financial education and with referrals. It’s been a rewarding project for those who’ve been involved and watched it develop. We’ve got about eight months left in the 18-month grant.”
Nationwide, many homeless people are also victims of mental illness, unable to care for themselves, hold jobs or afford the medications they need. The Main Place operates drop-in recovery centers in Newark and Mount Vernon.
Donald Warth, TMP’s housing director, said the centers are for those “who experience severe and persistent mental illness.”
“Of our clientele, 10 to 15 percent are either homeless or marginally housed,” said Warth. “It’s one of my biggest concerns that Knox County doesn’t have a homeless shelter. At least in Licking County they can stay at The Salvation Army’s shelter for 90 days, and start working on their own personal recovery and their housing. Licking County, of course, is a bigger county, but it has so many more resources. Up here in Knox County, it’s rough; it’s hard to find them a place to stay until they can start working on their housing. To walk in that door, homeless, with nothing ... and nothing happens overnight. It takes months, sometimes, to fill out paperwork, jump through all the hoops. But they’re also dealing with mental illness, taking their medications, seeing the counselor and dealing with all the baggage attached to that.”
Warth said TMP’s Newark office has 1,300 clients; Mount Vernon has 517.
“I think in Knox there’s a stigma about mental illness,” he said. “They don’t want to admit it, and people don’t want to deal with it, or see it.”
Glenn Hopkins, executive director of TMP, agreed.
“There are obvious things Knox County doesn’t have that other counties have chosen to have. There’s no shelter, for example. Energy assistance is available, we have Kno-Ho-Co Community Action Council, etc., but it’s never enough. And that’s not unique to Knox County. That’s in the U.S.
“The public’s perception is that the majority of people who are homeless are mentally ill or experiencing addiction disorders,” said Hopkins. “Nationally, 70 to 80 percent of the mentally ill or addicted make up the homeless population.”
Asked if there is a solution to homelessness in Knox County, Harris replied, “I think we need jobs that are going to pay a living wage. I really think that is what it boils down to, if people had a living wage. We see a lot of people who are working but can’t make ends meet. They either need help making a rent payment or to get food from our food pantry. There are a lot of options [in the county] as far as feeding people, but if they don’t make enough to pay their bills ....
“And now, in this current economic climate, any one of us could find ourselves or our children in that predicament where we just can’t make it.”
This is Part 3 of a weeklong series on homelessness in Mount Vernon and Knox County.
