Audio clip
Libby Young
When he was just 16, Garry Honaker’s mother booted him from her home in Delaware, Ohio, to live with his father in Cleveland, Tenn., he said.
That didn’t work out either. Reluctantly, Mr. Honaker, now 21, went to Cleveland Emergency Shelter.
“I was scared,” he said. “I had never been out in the world on my own.”
As the economic downturn continues, officials said small cities with limited resources such as Dalton, Ga., and Cleveland struggle to shelter people like Mr. Honaker who truly have nowhere to sleep. Social workers in both cities said they have been forced to deny shelter.
They often refer clients to Chattanooga, not knowing if they’ll ever make it there.
Cleveland’s Emergency Shelter has beds for 31 men and 10 women, which often does not meet the city’s needs — especially during the winter.
“We have had an abundance of people seeking shelter,” said Harry Johnson, executive director of the Cleveland/Bradley Community Services Agency. “I think we could do well if we had a slightly larger facility.”
The flailing economy will continue to put more people onto the street, said Jane Massey, who’s organizing a homeless count for the Georgia Department of Community Affairs.
“It just trickles all the way through,” she said about the effects of tough economic times.
In Dalton — even though the men’s shelter has vacancies — women and families have a problem.
“There is truly a lack of alternatives,” said Teresa Sefcik, homeless education liaison for Whitfield County Schools.
The county doesn’t have a family shelter facility unless the family has fled a domestic violence situation. With no family shelter, Whitfield County’s affordable housing agency helps families in crisis by doling out vouchers for motels.
But there aren’t enough motel vouchers to go around, said housing case manager Jennifer Shearin.
She tracks the number of children she must turn away: 133 last fiscal year and 112 children since July.
But Ms. Shearin said Whitfield County doesn’t have a family shelter because, “People don’t want to admit that there’s a problem.”
The homeless in rural areas are often described as “invisible” — sleeping in the woods, crowding into cheap motels, doubling up with friends. They’re out of sight, advocates say — but they still don’t have a place of their own.
Korean War veteran William McCoy, 71, slept in the woods around Dalton for a few months this winter. He said he recently rented a roach-infested room in east Dalton for $270 a month, which he finances from his small military pension.
“It’s just a little dump,” he said, “a place out of the weather.”
On a sunny day, Mr. McCoy ate french fries in the park near City Hall. He wasn’t in a hurry to return to his rented room, which he said doesn’t have furniture except for a bed. He said, “I’m still here without any shelter, really.”
In Cleveland, the Community Services Agency is applying for grants for decent transitional housing, which helps the homeless to eventually be on their own. Mr. Johnson, executive director, said, “We are dying to get funding for that.”
Housing expert Michael Stoops said there’s a pressing need for both emergency shelters and transitional housing. “If we had enough housing ... then we would not need emergency shelters,” said Mr. Stoops, acting executive director of the National Coalition for the Homeless. “The bottom line is, that’s not going to happen anytime soon.”
He tries to take on the perspective of the homeless. What do they want?
He imagines many homeless people seek a permanent, affordable place to call their own.
But right now, he said, they need a place to sleep.
FAST FACT
A 2005 count found 754,147 homeless people in the United States, and only 438,300 emergency shelter and transitional housing beds.
Source: HUD’s Homeless Assessment Report to Congress, Feb. 2007
