TU: Homelessness Spreads to the Suburbs

[stephendare]

Deirdre Conner does a solid piece about the spread of the homeless to the suburbs.

She also shows how efficiently we fix that problem by bringing them all into the downtown.



http://www.jacksonville.com/news/metro/2009-09-13/story/homeless_population_not_limited_to_the_urban_center

A corner of the woods near Interstate 295 has been Robert Pope’s home off and on for four years.

Every morning and evening, thousands of Clay County commuters rush past the makeshift camp where Pope, 34, and eight others have holed up.

Few of them notice, and the band would like to keep it that way â€" visibility means complaints, and complaints mean they have to pack up and go away for a while.

There’s nowhere else to go, except other woods. The nearest homeless shelters are in downtown Jacksonville.

“Clay County’s No. 1 rule is, 'out of sight, out of mind,’” Pope said.

The homeless and poor are less visible in Clay County than in urban areas. But their numbers are increasing as the recession, which was already disproportionately affecting the suburbs, takes a toll on communities that thought they didn’t need to worry about supposedly “urban” problems. Layoffs have hit hard in good-paying industries such as financial services and construction. That had unemployment in Clay County growing faster than Duval in all but one month this year, according to state figures.

In Clay, as with most other communities in the ring of housing developments and rural areas that surround Jacksonville, the safety net is tenuous at best.

When people lose a job, become homeless, go hungry or need health care â€" as so many have since the economy nose-dived â€" there is far less assistance available than in downtown Jacksonville. And finding the help that is out there is a challenge when people depend on sparse transportation networks.

But the downturn has spurred some local charities to take action on problems that the suburbs were once slow to face.

“When things are great, no one thinks there’s a problem,” said Amy Parker, spokeswoman for the Paul E. and Klare N. Reinhold Foundation.

The foundation is the sponsor of a grant that just started sending members of the Sulzbacher Center’s HOPE Team to Clay County once a week. Over six months, they will try and determine the extent of the homeless population in Clay, while also offering food, medical services and other necessities.

A comprehensive count was not done in 2008 or in 2009; Parker and others believe that there has never been a truly comprehensive count and don’t want to estimate until the HOPE Team finishes its work in the spring.

“So few people are counted down there because when you’re talking about the suburbs and rural areas it’s very difficult to find people because they’re so spread out,” said Cindy Funkhouser, Vice President of Health Services at the Sulzbacher Center. She said law enforcement agencies have told staff that the homeless likely number in the hundreds.

A soup kitchen is now open every Saturday in Green Cove Springs through local churches and the Mercy Network, and two more (in Keystone Heights and Middleburg) are in the works. Other agencies including Family Promise of Jacksonville and Community Connections have programs set to start in Clay County.

Pope’s camp was the first stop for Jackie Brown and Patrick Finn-Schultz, the two HOPE Team outreach workers that are just starting their work in Clay County.

Pope was astonished at their offer to drive them up to the Sulzbacher Center to take a shower, and then drive them back if they wanted.

“Now that would be awesome,” he said.

At first, when he left his Fleming Island home after splitting up with his wife, he lived in an apartment. He lost his job at a car dealership, then started working at Walmart. He got behind on the bills, and ultimately ended up trading off between motels and the street.

“It got to the point where I couldn’t hold up both [the job and living in the woods],” he said.

When he and his girlfriend got to the camp, it was just the two of them and another man who they believe has been there for 12 years. Now there are nine of them.

In St. Johns County, one of the wealthiest counties in Florida, the story is the same.

In the first few weeks of the school year, the district has seen the number of homeless students jump nearly 30 percent, to about 144 so far this year â€" with more applications coming in â€" up from 113 in June.

In Nassau County, nearly every charity is overextended, and that leaves the Barnabas Center in Fernandina Beach as one of the only charities currently able to help people with health care and emergency assistance for rent or utilities.

Most of the callers have never sought help before, said Susan Holden-Dodge, the center’s director. The Tuesday before last, the center’s medical clinic saw nearly twice the normal number of patients.

Even though the need is increasing, churches and individuals in Nassau are always willing to make extra peanut butter sandwiches or run another food drive, Holden-Dodge said.

“It’s an amazing time to see the community come together,” she said.

With Shands Jacksonville as the only safety-net hospital in the area, medical care in outlying areas is a huge need, said Jeannie Gallina, who runs the Way Free Medical Clinic in Green Cove Springs.

The clinic, run by volunteer doctors and nurses, has seen a huge increase in demand. When it first started, it was open one Saturday a month. Now it is open on Saturdays and Sundays twice a month, yet despite quadrupuling its hours there are many more clients than the staff can handle on any given day, Gallina said. When last year the Clay County Health Department shut down its obstetrical clinic for poor women, Way Free began opening Thursday nights for pregnant women. It’s the county’s only clinic providing obstetrical care for uninsured pregnant women, Gallina said.

The clinic even sees people from Putnam and Baker counties, she said, because they don’t know where else to go.

Gallina said she is thrilled to see the HOPE Team come into the area.

“The homeless population in Clay County has been long overlooked and perhaps even denied,” she said. “People think that there is no homelessness in this county, but there is and it’s substantial. They’re there and they need help.”

On Friday, Brown and Finn-Schultz were making only their second visit to the camp where Pope lives, but one of the nine, Kenneth Ingram, is ready.

At 50, Ingram said he’s been to jail too many times for panhandling. He’s ready to get out, stop drinking, start over. The Sulzbacher Center has a bed for him.

“I’m getting out off the street,” he said.

Friday night, he loaded his small bag of belongings into a minivan and headed downtown with Finn-Schultz and Brown.

Before them, the only visitors he got were a handful of Good Samaritans â€" and cops.

“I don’t know how many times I can say 'thank you,’ " he said.

[DavidWilliams]

Jacksonville is finally becoming a "destination" city. Not for travel/entertainment but at least for the homeless. And I am not talking about people temporarily down and out. All for social services helping individuals in a bind. Pardon me if I am being redundant can't remember if I posted previously on the subject. My brother works directly in homeless advocacy downtown (assists with drug/health treatment, job counseling, housing options etc) and this is true in his experience. He states that the majority in his daily dealings are not from here and actively seek it out.   We are in second place only to SF in the folks he deals with.

On a side note...he is deciding whether to stay in this field (I think he has been in the last 10 years or so) as he is becoming frustrated and burned out with them. The majority are vagrant/criminal/con types that do not want help. They just want to do their con thing.

[copperfiend]

I started a thread about this as a growing problem on Beach/9A a few months. There is a group of a half dozen lazy middle age bastards who stand on the side of the road scaring the crap out of people trying to get the next dollar to buy some Mad Dog or Nyquil. I saw the cops busting one a few weeks ago but he'll be back.

[thekillingwax]

"It got to the point where I couldn’t hold up both..."
Because camping out in the woods doing nothing all day is a full time job.

[DavidWilliams]

But the real reason for the uptick is that more people are going homeless.
[/quote]

Agree with the crossroads part to an extent. Disagree Stephen...with the uptick...I am talking vagrants here not the truly temporary down due to job loss, mortgage problems, medical bills etc....I have seen pretty much the same crew near Hemming Plaza for damn near a decade (some faces come and go but, I am there every day and...I mean the same 5-10 that I recognize have been there for almost a decade.)  They could give a sh.t less what is going on with the economy.

[DavidWilliams]

well are you talking about the same 5 or 10 that youve been seeing for years or the new ones that are creating an uptick?

If you choose to read (or re-read) my previous post I think it is pretty clear. I am talking vagrants. The 5-10 crew expands and extracts (the originals are a constant). No, one seems to be "temporarily" down. 

[buckethead]

Is someone at the TU watching the site? Is there some vendetta?

[DavidWilliams]

Sweet. Now...if only the city can install showers in the library. Preferably down near street level...cool.

[heights unknown]

What if it were you?  Then it would be a different story wouldn't it?  Never say never. These are perilous times in which we live and anything can happen without warning...including becoming homeless for whatever reason.  None of us really know what happened to any of these people for them to become homeless...so be a little sympathetic y'all, and I understand that many of you..."don't understand."

Heights Unknown

[Keith-N-Jax]

Yeah and many of these people are just looking for a hand out and have been out there for yrs. Have you ever notice how many of these people are always puffing on a cancer stick or have a beer.

[buckethead]

True as that may be, there are also those who do not deserve our scorn. Do not feed predators. Do help your neighbor.