MOUNT VERNON — In good weather, they sleep outdoors, in the woods where they won’t be spotted. Or under a bridge. Under the viaduct in Mount Vernon. In a park. In winter, they might walk the streets all night to keep from freezing to death.
Sometimes, they have a tent, or a sleeping bag. If they’re really “lucky,” they have both. Those with only a vehicle to sleep in consider themselves fortunate; at least they have protection from the elements, if not from the cold.
They are homeless in Knox County. And, by their own estimate, there are from 75 to 125 women, men and children who are without a permanent, warm, dry, safe place to sleep each night. But no one knows for sure because here, the homeless prefer not to be seen. And in a large rural area, they do succeed at not being noticed.
Leo Jones was homeless a long time, and is about to become homeless again, evicted because he can’t pay his rent. Jones grew up in Fredericktown, graduated from Fredericktown High School in 1989 and got his first job at McDonald’s. He loves cooking and baking, and has worked at several local restaurants, collecting experience in commercial kitchens. His dream is to own a restaurant where he would serve what he called with a smile, “My famous meat loaf.”
But that dream is only a dream right now. Jones’ last job was at WgGrinders; he lost that job when the restaurant closed and he’s been looking for another job for the past nine months.
His first homeless experience came about after his mother died of cancer in 2001.
“My mom had remarried and we lived in Fredericktown in a rented house. Then she passed away and I got laid off from Lanning’s,” he said. “My stepdad and I decided to move back to Mount Vernon.”
The stepfather then disappeared; Jones said he heard he is now deceased.
“For two years I was actually homeless, and bounced around with friends,” Jones said. “I stayed with friends for about a month, then had to leave there. I lived in my truck for six months, in the winter. Don’t ask me how I did it, but I did it. It wasn’t easy. There were nights it was so cold I had to wear my winter jacket and sweatshirt, and have my sleeping bag and three blankets on top of that, and sometimes even that wasn’t enough. I ended up sleeping in a tent behind the Mulberry Street Methodist Church, with their permission.”
Then Jones’ luck changed, and he was hired by W.g. Grinders as a cook, where he saved enough money to put down a deposit on an apartment on Columbus Road. Then the restaurant closed and he could no longer pay his rent.
“I’ve had four or five interviews, but no promises,” he said. “They never call to let me know. Job interviewers are like car salesmen ... they’ll tell you anything they want to tell you. I’ve been bugging one restaurant for months, and they always say, ‘We’ll call you,’ but they don’t. I have to go to court on Nov. 17 for my eviction. [The landlord] let me get the back rent up to over $1,000, but that’s as far as he would let it go.”
Jones lives on $115 a month in state disability because he has a bulging disk and arthritis in his back, and severe tendonitis in an elbow and shoulder. He said his case has been in appeal on the federal level with the Social Security Administration for four years. He sold his truck some time ago to help make ends meet.
“I honestly have no idea what I’m going to do,” Jones said about his pending eviction. “I have no clue. The only help you can get [from local social service agencies] is maybe a couple or three nights in a motel. That’s about it. Maybe you can get a couple weeks rent from Interchurch, but they can’t do much. Kno-Ho-Co can help some people, and Mulberry Street Methodist has helped me. But now I’ve got all the help I can get. I doubt I can get any more.”
Jones said there is definitely a homelessness problem in Knox County.
“We need to do something about it as far as getting a shelter or something. This is something most people aren’t realizing or seeing, but it’s definitely here. Honestly, I didn’t even know there were so many homeless people until I became one. Now I know there are a bunch of us.”
Another is Nat Dotson, born with rheumatoid arthritis and scoliosis of the spine, who has had years of chiropractic and physical therapy, and who said his doctor ordered a nursing home stay. But he cannot afford it, nor has he found assistance to pay for it. Dotson said he sleeps at night in his storage unit, the location of which he won’t disclose because occupancy there is not permitted by the owner.
Earlier this year, Dotson received a wheelchair that helps him get around, although he sometimes walks with a cane, too. He has an assistance dog — a friendly Husky named Duke Ellington — who pulls the wheelchair when necessary. They live on Supplemental Security Income and Social Security Disability, Dotson said, and what he can earn as a part-time promoter of music and arts, work he conducts via the computers at The Main Place, where he spends many of his daylight hours.
Dotson, who said he is a licensed interfaith minister, leads a group of local homeless youth under the name of Rev-0-Lution Church Ohio (“that’s an absolute zero in the middle,” he said) and he and other homeless people attend the meetings of a group planning a local homeless shelter.
The 1993 graduate of Mount Vernon High School stared at his tattooed hands — “God is Love” on the right hand and “Word is Bond” on the left — and the tattoos of broken shackles that surround both his wrists. He and the Rev-0-Lution members meet every evening at the hot meals dinner served at Mount Vernon churches. They have big dreams for helping the homeless, including a mobile sanctuary and a raffle that could fund purchases of homes.
“We would like to see Knox County actually pay attention to the facts [about homelessness,]” said Dotson. “We’d like to see Knox County build not only a shelter, but a system to take care of these people.”
This is Part 4 of a week-long series on homelessness in Mount Vernon and Knox County.
