Mark Ledbetter, February 13, 2023
What are the Solutions?
The state of the homeless in Sylacauga and the surrounding area has been a concern for many. Advocates suggest shelter should be available for the homeless in our area, and I concur, but the homeless issue is complex and complicated; there is no “easy fix.” Recognizing the needs and addressing the needs of the homeless are two different things.
My personal experience and encounters with the homeless stem from my work as a reporter for the Daily Home (2009-2011) and as a member of a Coosa Valley Ministerial Association task force (2014) charged with investigation the need of the poor and homeless. My service as a Community Service Chaplain and Sylacauga Police Department Chaplain, has provided me with more insight to the state of homelessness in our area, but unfortunately my encounters were with those whose lifestyle choices resulted in undesirable behavior.
Having reviewed Social Media posts suggesting needs of the homeless are crucial, I present some of my thoughts and conclusions from experience and research. I also offer solutions for review and consideration.
The State of Homelessness
Homelessness can be defined as lacking stable, safe, and functioning housing. The homeless live on the streets, move from shelter to other shelter, find housing with friends or family, are found in emergency accommodations, or in private boarding houses without proper restroom access or security.
Research since 2006 suggests a significant downward trend in the numbers of homeless until recent numbers suggest homeless numbers are growing. 2022 statistics suggest an almost 600,000 homeless population in the U.S.; and while Alabama homeless number 3,351, the small population does not minimalize their needs. As might be expected, significant numbers of homeless are found in the State’s larger metropolitan areas.
Homelessness does not discriminate as far as race, gender, or age, with perhaps the most concerning are the numbers of homeless under age 18 and the small numbers of bed available exclusively addressing their sheltering needs.
General Causes
Three general causes for Homelessness include Life-style choice; Situational circumstances, which includes loss of income, divorce, etc.; and Mental Illness. Generalizations regarding why people are homeless are suggested, but just looking at the homeless walking or driving their bikes down the street cannot be discerned without contact and conversation.
Attitudes Toward the Homeless
Three general attitudes expressed towards the homeless include Compassion, Indifference, or Disdain.
The first start addressing homelessness needs is compassion, a heartfelt concern for their plight. There must be a willingness to try to understand not only their needs of the homeless and the reasons for their state thereby creating greater concern and responsible responses to their needs.
Indifference and disdain are personal issues and changes in attitude and actions require a change of heart and a reevaluation of basic beliefs and values. The homeless are fellow pilgrims, who for a variety of reasons life lifestyles we may not choose for ourselves, still stand in need of our assistance.
Shelter Availability
While a slim majority of homeless find temporary sheltering, a significant number remain unsheltered. Alabama has 784 beds available for individuals, 280 for families, and 26 for youth under 18. Seasonal shelters in Alabama, 44. Most shelters in our area are either situational/emergency temporary shelters or seasonal.
History of Shelter Provisions in Our Area
Either situational/emergency temporary shelters, shelters in our area have included temporary shelters or overnight stays at local hotels as the situation warrants. Limited funding reduces some responses and are a quick fix for extenuating circumstances.
Temporary Warming Centers, such as the one provided this past Christmas Weekend (2022), are rarely, if ever utilized by the homeless for specific reasons. While five shelters were opened county-wide perhaps less than a dozen took opportunity of their availability. In Sylacauga two sought shelter, a local resident and a transient from Meridian, Ms.
Once, then Mayor Doug Murphree and I went to the local hospital ER waiting room where the homeless have been known to seek shelter. None were there. Looking in known makeshift shelters proved fruitless. On other occasions while not seeking shelter, some sought food, and returned to whatever shelter they were using.
Past attempts proving unfruitful can become frustrating and discouraging, but not despairing. Attempts to find solutions and viable options will continue and provisions made, but plans have been reviewed and protocol changes made to provide more effective and efficient manners for addressing these issues.
Understanding the Homeless
Daily trips through town may find the homeless walking or riding their bikes, and their faces have grown familiar. My experience with law enforcement suggests that if you really want to see the homeless active in Sylacauga, you should drive around town between 10 p.m. and 4 a.m., when the streets are quiet, and the dumpsters are left unattended. They are known to seek shelter in abandoned houses, under bridges, and in unlikely places.
I found a shopping cart behind a local grocery store packed with discarded meat scraps and dated milk that had placed in the dumpster. Good-hearted people have provided me with warm clothing but what I’ve discovered they have scarfs, coats, toboggins, gloves. I don’t know where they got them, and I didn’t ask.
Survival Skills
The need to survive takes precedent over self-improvement and driven by this need many have developed well-honed survival skills. Waking up, they know to survive daily they must find food, or something they can trade for food and other perceived necessities. They may find it necessary to move on and find other shelter locations.
Some are found transporting on their bikes, what they can carry in their hands, or ask someone to transport for them, a variety of items they find useful and very ingeniously manufacture whatever thing they believe will fit their needs. Some have gotten discarded go-carts to work, others can be seen during the Christmas season with lights on their tire rims and handlebars. They can make up for lack in social skills with inventive imaginations.
Their drive to survive has developed resources they fall back on, even in freezing weather.
Drug/Alcohol Abuse
A debate is, “Does drug abuse create homelessness, or does homelessness invite drug abuse?” The answer is, "Yes." Drugs can be a reason for homelessness, or homelessness can lead to drug abuse.
A public shelter, including a temporary warming center, must protect public safety, and therefore stringent measures must be included for admitting anyone to a shelter. Drugs, drug paraphernalia, alcohol must be prohibited. There must be a way to either screen personal items those seeking shelter bring with them or devise a plan to separate and store personal items in a secure location with access to them under strict supervision.
The drug abusers knowing they can't bring their drugs with them will not seek public shelters.
Mental Health
Not all homeless are mentally ill, but there are some who are, who need supervised care, medication, but resources and facilities are not cheap and rarely an alternative, unless there is a court order, and then resources can be temporary rather than a permanent solution.
Local shelters that are opened to the public are generally not equipped to address mental health needs. How to screen for these issues and providing alternative shelter must be part of the consideration for shelter availability.
Emotional Issues
Emotional and Mental issues are not the same. Attributed to “chemical imbalances,” or traumatic brain injury, something “snaps” in the brain and the individual can no longer function. Emotional issues can be induced by exposure to traumatic incidents whether within family settings, domestic violence, war, natural disasters, loss of a loved-one, or a host of other events creating trauma.
Trauma can create a set of emotional needs that seem irrational to others. One set of emotional needs for the homeless, surprising enough, is a desire for privacy.
Once homeless herself, Kirsten Anderberg rose out of a homelessness imposed upon her and her mother because of her father’s neglect and failure to provide the financial support he was obligated to provide. Her rise out of homelessness and poverty took her on a journey to productivity and stability. She published a series of essay based upon her experiences and education, 21st Century Essays on Homelessness (2011). She opens with this astute observation.
“Homeless people are burdened with an obligation to hide, while given no privacy” (p. 1). While she describes it as “a sanity tactic” for the homeless, to others with no privacy issues the need for privacy may appear odd. She adds,
“The ability to shut a door with 4 walls is something many take for granted. Such privacy affords a human moment to let down his guard, emotionally and physically” allowing “a person some rest, a moment to rejuvenate.” (Ibid.)
She notes that keeping on the alert at all times to protect belongings and self in public “is exhausting, both physically and mentally.” With a “dream” of getting away from others, “constant exposure to other people can be as eroding as any physical weather elements.” (Ibid.)
If the homeless seem antisocial, it MAY be because they have created “mental doors” to gain a form of privacy, something that may be missed when providing shelters not providing the desire for privacy, or the ability to “shut the door.” For the homeless, “…privacy becomes a symbol of safety” because, “When we know we are safe, because we have privacy.”(Ibid.)
The need for privacy may be a key factor if the homeless are the major focus for providing shelter, whether a temporary warming center or some type of a more permanent form of shelter.
It may also be a factor when trying to find the homeless – they don’t want to be found.
Communication
Primary focus has been upon provision of shelter during extreme weather conditions, including tornado and freezing/icy weather. Providing a shelter includes finding appropriate shelter to meet the immediate needs, recruiting volunteers to assist manning the shelter, and financial considerations in the form of insurance and operational expenses.
It is not as easy as simply opening your doors and involves pre-planning.
Communication, whether Social Media Platforms, TV and Radio are valuable tools providing shelter openings and their locations, recruiting volunteers, and soliciting resources, e.g., food, water, etc.; however, these mediums only reach those who have access to these mediums. The homeless must depend upon personal contact and word of mouth.
What Are Possible Solutions?
When considering possible solutions for providing the needs of the homeless, especially during weather incidents, there are two directions that can, and should be taken.
One, temporary, immediate provision of facilities, volunteers, and resources dedicated to meet these needs are needed. With proper planning, a coordinated effort in cooperation with each shelter and the Talladega County Emergency Management Agency (TCEMA) can facilitate an effective and efficient response to the temporary needs.
Two, a more comprehensive and holistic approach to meet the general needs of the homeless, needs other than temporary shelter, should be considered.
Steps to Addressing a Comprehensive and Holist Approach
Create a Task Force comprised of volunteers and community members charged with identifying and networking with existing agencies already addressing the needs of the homeless.
Establish a network of agencies providing food pantries, soup kitchens, clothing, and other resources should be established to coordinate community efforts, through which communications can be establish and exchanging information and resources as needed.
Prepare plans, policies and procedures must assign value to those we seek to assist, and hopefully allowing them to invest of themselves rather than simply providing a handout.
Create a public forum for presenting the plans and needs of the community, and to allow community input should be established.
A vital step, members of the community who express desires to meet the needs of the homeless should step up, receive training, and volunteer in a variety of ways needed to address needs and issues of homelessness.
Conclusion
This information is designed to inform those concerned about the homeless and hopefully instigate a grassroots approach that utilizes the resources, ingenuity and concerned community members to give of themselves in seeking an effective and efficient response to the needs of the homeless.