How many tent cities must be demolished or forced to relocate in Chattanooga before we understand that both the city and local residents are simply choosing not to see the growing problem of homelessness around us?
This time, the tent city is on a toxic waste site, and city officials are making an emergency allocation of as much as $15,000 to the Community Kitchen to reopen its cold-weather shelter for two weeks to help transition the 100 or so campers either to new campsites or to apartments.
You'll notice we didn't say transition them to shelters. That's because Chattanooga doesn't have anywhere near the number of shelter beds needed for a city our size.
According to information gathered from local service providers, more than 4,000 people find themselves homeless each year in Chattanooga, and our public schools count more than 1,000 homeless children, according to the Community Kitchen's website.
"Each night, an estimated 600-700 individuals sleep outside or in shelters, with nearly 200 of them in families," the website states. "Chattanooga reflects national trends when it comes to the rise in homelessness among families. Over the last several years, the number of homeless families has increased nearly 300 [percent]."
The reasons are myriad, and we must not accept the stereotypes of the homeless as panhandlers, the beggars and bums.
More to the point, we must look to poverty, eroding employment opportunities, declines in public assistance, and a growing lack of affordable housing. Other contributing factors include a lack of affordable health care, domestic violence, mental illness and addiction disorders.
Nationally, about 3.5 million experience homelessness in America. More than a third of them are children, and 45 percent of those children are under the age of 5. About a fourth of all homeless people are between the ages of 25 and 34, and 6 percent are ages 55 to 64. Demographically, the national homeless population is estimated to be 42 percent black, 39 percent white, 13 percent Hispanic, 4 percent Native American, and 2 percent Asian. About 67 percent of the homeless individuals who are not in families are male, while 65 percent of those in families are female. Among homeless adults, 30 percent are severely mentally ill, 18 percent are physically disabled, 17 percent are employed, 16 percent are victims of domestic violence, 13 percent are veterans, and 4 percent are HIV positive.
At least once a year, locally, you can pretty much count on reading about yet another tent city being demolished or an occasional vacant warehouse loading dock being cleared by police of cardboard shanties.
And each time, one or more local news organizations covers the debacle and reports - yet again - that there are not enough shelters, let alone affordable housing, to help.
But it's not from lack of planning or money.
Early this year, the Times Free Press reported that the Chattanooga Regional Homeless Coalition received a bit more than $2.6 million from HUD to help homeless people in its 11-county Southeast Tennessee region.
But that was money that goes to more than a dozen programs and agencies like the Partnership for Families, Children and Adults or SETHRA or other groups that work toward getting the homeless permanently housed. For the most part, that money didn't really touch the problem of night-to-night shelter for homeless adults without children - a problem that largely dates back several years to the closing of Union Gospel Mission. At one time, the mission offered about 200 beds for homeless men if they were willing to join a Bible study program.
Those 200 beds are what Jens Christensen, CEO of the Community Kitchen, says Chattanooga now still lacks - not as a permanent fix for homelessness, but as a transition landing spot.
"Fundamentally, the problem is a lack of adequate shelter," Christensen said. "If you do not know where you're going to sleep tonight, it's hard to focus on where you're going to live tomorrow."
Meanwhile, when the cold-weather temporary shelter at the Community Kitchen ended with the advent of spring, the homeless took tents that Community Kitchen staffers handed out and pitched camp nearby - on an old landfill site that state and city officials nixed years ago as a potential new homeless shelter. Why? Because environmental clean-up to a standard safe for overnight stays would be too costly. Before that, the tent city on the backside of Cameron Hill was torn down for development and road construction. And before that, the tent city along a railroad right-of-way between the Chattanooga Choo Choo and 11th Street was bulldozed by railroad officials because it was "a liability."
But not to worry: The Chattanooga City Council today will take up a controversial ordinance regulating panhandling. The resolution, fueled by citizen complaints "about unruly beggars" is scheduled for a first-reading vote. Council members are using police records to demonstrate need: 457 panhandling calls throughout the city between Jan. 1, 2015, and March 14, 2018, involving trespassing, drug violations, disorderly conduct, drunkenness, assaults and suicide attempts. Police say 361 resulted in contacts for social services.
It's a good bet that some of those needed social services were for shelter beds - beds that we don't have.