MOUNT VERNON — Beau Ashley, 27, was homeless for six long years in Los Angeles and Detroit. His spiral downward began in 2001 when his lifelong plans to join the Army for an exciting 20-year career fell through. Then his fiancee betrayed him just days before their wedding and Ashley hit bottom; he turned to alcohol and drugs. He quickly lost his car and apartment, and ended up on the street, begging for change, scavenging for scrap metal. He ended up in prison, then turned to gang life and the “business” of selling drugs.
After six years of a danger-filled life, he took refuge in his mother’s Akron-area home, then decided to leave the metropolitan living behind and, because his former stepfather lived in Fredericktown, move to Mount Vernon in July.
The young man who had witnessed the horrors of big-city homelessness and gang life said he saw many things in Knox County that were brand-new to him.
“The first time I saw an Amish buggy at Wal-Mart,” he said with a grin, “it just blew me away. It blew me away.”
Now a member of the Fredericktown Seventh-day Adventist Church, Ashley said he hasn’t touched alcohol or drugs in several years and now lets God lead his life. He is happy in the apartment he shares with a friend and enjoys watching television, surfing the Internet and playing with his pet cats. He participates in his church’s ministry to the homeless in Columbus and hopes to volunteer with the proposed shelter in Mount Vernon.
“It’s very difficult being homeless,” Ashley said. “People don’t want to see someone taking a shower under their water spigot or [going to the bathroom outdoors]. But homelessness can happen to anyone. Your house burns down, any unfortunate series of events could leave anybody homeless.”
Ashley claims that law enforcement officers regularly harass, mistreat and abuse homeless people in Los Angeles to scare them off the streets, and that the homeless are ticketed or arrested for jaywalking and other minor infractions for which the non-homeless are not. Being homeless in a large city, he said, is treated like a crime.
He knew a homeless man in Los Angeles who wore a neck brace to support his broken neck.
“He had a job, but then he broke his neck and couldn’t work, then he lost his job and then his house, and then he’s on the street. With a broken neck. How can he fix that? You can make a decision not to rob a bank or use drugs, but you can’t make a decision not to be homeless when there are no resources being provided for you. Being homeless because you broke your neck ... how is that a crime? How is it a crime to be a victim of circumstance?”
Ashley said many mentally ill people are homeless and many homeless people are mentally ill, but that’s a Catch-22.
“They’re depressed and they’re homeless, but because they’re homeless they’re depressed,” he said. “I believe that a lot of people can become self-sufficient. There are also people who don’t want to be successful; they would rather be homeless. But a lot of people don’t want to be, and these people need help.”
Where can homeless people go for help in Knox County?
In January 2008, 34 homeless people came to Interchurch Social Services for help. Last month [October] ISS assisted 13; the staff expects the numbers to rise as cold weather sets in. ISS has offices in Mount Vernon, Fredericktown, Centerburg and Danville.
Kno-Ho-Co Ashland Community Action Council has two apartments in the Fredericktown area that are referred to as “transitional housing,” where individuals and families can stay until they get back on their feet.
The Community Resource Directory, published by Mental Health America of Knox County, lists resources of all kinds, from thrift stores to the Retired Senior Volunteer Program and from the DELTA Project to the American Red Cross. The Salvation Army sometimes provides motel rooms for the homeless, and the Red Cross assists victims of disasters such as house fires.
At a recent meeting on the proposed homeless shelter, Kim Beaver of ISS noted that, “There are 27 agencies in this county, but no place to stay [a shelter].”
“So we try to refer people to the shelter in Mansfield, Harmony House,” said Joy Harris of ISS, “but sometimes they don’t want to go to Mansfield, and I don’t blame them.” She explained that staying at Harmony House would require daily commutes to get children to school in Knox County. “Sometimes people are getting an apartment, but they can’t get in for four days, so The Salvation Army and Interchurch will provide a hotel stay. That’s the kind of networking we do. This is a good community to work in because we [social service agencies] do support each other.”
This is the fifth installment in a weeklong series on homelessness in Mount Vernon and Knox County.
