A 2017 count by the Northwest Continuum of Care documented 466 homeless people in the region, with about 70 percent of them unsheltered. Another 69 people who were placed in permanent and rapid rehousing weren't part of the homeless count, Lasure reports in the first story.
Several community members say they want to erase the stigma of being homeless; Todd Carter, the director of the area's homeless shelter, the Hospitality House, told Lasure that many of the residents are judged for listing the shelter as their address. But many don't realize that "63 percent of the people who come into the Hospitality House had recently went through some form of trauma. This wasn’t counting any trauma the person had experienced in the past or in childhood," Lasure reports.
Said Hospitality House Executive Director Tina Krause: "We're not just a homeless shelter; we're a trauma center providing critical care." Krause said that most weeks, at least one client acts on a suicidal thought, and that there were six suicide attempts on site in one week last winter, and one client who died off site.
A citizen group called the Watauga Compassionate Community Initiative is trying to educate area residents about the trauma and raise awareness about homelessness in hopes of reducing the stigma. Many people experience the problems that can lead to homelessness, such as drug abuse, an abusive relationship, or poor money management, but people who end up homeless don't have the resources or support structures to deal with those problems.
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| The McKinneys with their newborn son Liam. (Watauga Democrat photo by Kayla Lasure) |
In the second story of the series, Lasure illustrates that lack of resources by profiling Justin and
Amanda McKinney, who are rebuilding their lives after years of homelessness, jail and drug abuse. Amanda, now 32, began abusing prescription drugs after she was prescribed opioids for spinal fusion surgery at age 14. She continued to use drugs to cope with trauma in her life such as rape and an emotionally abusive relationship with a boyfriend. She began taking methamphetamines and ended up in jail on meth-related charges on two sentences for a combined three years.
After she was released, she had a hard time affording a place to live because no one would hire her with her criminal history. After living at the Hospitality House for three months and sending out 42 job applications, she finally landed a job--but didn't tell her employer where she lived until she had proved her work ethic.
Justin's story began similarly: While deployed in the U.S. Air Force, he broke his back in an explosion and needed surgery. He became addicted to the opioids he was prescribed, and said the withdrawal was so painful that he began using methamphetamines to cope. He landed in jail twice for about two years combined, and also had a hard time finding work or housing after his release, which led to him living at the Hospitality House.
Justin and Amanda both told Lasure that they had little in the way of support from family or friends because of their addictions. "When you’re in an addiction, you push a lot of people away, and people distance themselves from you," Justin told Lasure. "You do a lot of things during an addiction you wouldn’t normally do. You crush your own support system."
In the third story of the series, Lasure profiles a Watauga County Sherriff's Officer's efforts to change the way other law enforcement officials see the homeless community. "Sgt. Casey Miller is a member of the Sheriff’s Office Problem-Oriented Policing Squad. Watauga County Sheriff Len Hagaman said the POP Squad is a call-based group that can concentrate on community issues that regular patrol deputies wouldn’t have the time to focus on. These issues consist of places with common reports of speeding or drug activity," Lasure reports.
Last April, Hagaman told Miller that residents living near the Hospitality House were complaining that shelter residents were trespassing on their property, loitering, dealing drugs, and leaving trash. Miller met with area leaders and listened to their concerns, then investigated. It turned out that Hospitality House residents weren't the culprits: about 15 people who lived in the community were preying on Hospitality House residents, trying to sell them drugs, get money from them or steal their belongings. "It’s not the (Hospitality House) residents; that’s what a lot of people wanted to say was the problem," Miller told Lasure. "Once I dove in and took the project, it wasn’t the case. It was people that were within the community that were here preying on these people that are vulnerable."
The 15 individuals were ordered to stay away from the area; three were later caught and charged with trespassing. Miller told Lasure that the issue caused him to think differently about the homeless population, especially when he learned that 96 percent of the home's clients reported at least one instance of trauma in the past year. He says he now checks up on Hospitality House residents and tries to get to know them. "What people don’t understand they tend to try to avoid," Miller told Lasure. "(Law enforcement officers) don’t think bad of homeless people; they can’t wrap their head around why they can’t just go out and get a job and a house. It’s not always that simple."
from The Rural Blog http://ift.tt/2sHykHX Three-part series tackles homelessness in rural North Carolina - Entrepreneur Generations
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