The shame of the homeless is our problem. Here’s how Louisville can help
When Louisville officials began clearing out homeless camps late last year, displacing dozens of people, it sparked protests and brought renewed attention to the plight of the homeless.
More than 6,000 men, women and children in Louisville are homeless, according to the latest census taken in 2016. The city’s four overnight shelters — with a total of 365 beds — lack the capacity and the money to meet the needs of these community members.
Mayor Greg Fischer created a task force in December to better deal with homelessness, and the Metro Council adopted new rules in February requiring, among other things, a 21-day notice before the city can clear out homeless camps.
While Fischer’s task force hammers out potential solutions that are expected to be unveiled this summer, we asked people who work closely with the homeless what needs to be done now to address the problem.
Here are their solutions.
Natalie Harris, Coalition for the Homeless
The one thing I would do to address homelessness is to recommit as a country to creating an adequate supply of affordable housing. Over the past 40 years, regardless of political party in control, the United States has cut funding for low-income housing production, maintenance and subsides until we have reached the point that only 25 percent of those who qualify by income level for a housing subsidy can actually receive it.
At the same time, we are spending more than would be required to address this gap in home ownership subsidies through tax credits. This means that we as a country are spending the money needed to make sure that every citizen can afford a minimum level of affordable housing, but we have chosen to spend that money on those who are already wealthy enough to buy a home.
From Harris: The news in Louisville isn’t good for people with no place to sleep at night
But, this elegant solution requires a commitment and willingness to make change at the federal level. In the meantime, Louisville and other cities struggle with the increasing number of people who can access employment but are making too little to create a safety net for an auto break down, hospitalization or other unplanned expense that results in nonpayment of rent and eventual eviction. So, my suggestion to the city is two-fold: 1) keep working to create set-asides of affordable housing to any and all new developments as they are added to our community’s housing stock and 2) create a large low-barrier shelter that allows anyone to be provided shelter when they need it. This shelter solution would have to be large enough to address the need and welcome anyone while keeping everyone safe and providing services that help those in a shelter to move quickly to permanent housing. Only with this two-fold solution can we ensure that no one has to live or die on our streets.
Byron ‘Roc’ Peeler, formerly homeless
Revamp the homeless shelters in Louisville. Drug test the workers and hire people who care and are trained to deal with people with mental illness and drug addiction. Go to where homeless people are living on the streets, scoop them up and start re-educating them and help them get homes. Some people should be in a federally funded institution where they can be taken care of. A lot of homeless people don’t know how to take care of their hygiene or pay bills. You cannot teach people while they are still on the streets. They need to be in a facility for a while that has rules, but also gives people some freedom and doesn’t treat them like prisoners. The second thing we need is somebody like me who will speak for homeless people, someone who knows what’s going on and can confront people and ask for money to revamp the shelter system.
From Peeler: I was abused, addicted and homeless. Now I have a place to call home
More ways to help: 5 ways you can help the homeless in Louisville
Byron “Roc” Peeler was homeless for 14 years before getting an apartment in January.
Paul Stensrud, Exit 0 homeless ministry
The one thing I would do to reduce homelessness would be to open a multi-level shelter complex with all needed services located within the complex. The complex would include multiple shelters to accommodate multiple needs. A shelter for women and children, one for families, one for men, one for mentally ill and a wet shelter to serve those who are intoxicated.
Within this complex, there would be many of the needed services to help the homeless find the resources to move forward, such as help getting needed documentation, like birth certificates and Social Security cards, help applying for services like SSI benefits, health care, food stamps and housing, and help with mental health services and medication, or treatment programs for addicts.
There is no one answer to get someone out of homelessness. Each situation is unique and requires a unique solution. This could be accomplished by finding a location in the city that is not in use that could be used for the purposes outlined above. Many of the services are already in place and would just need to be scheduled to be at the complex several times a week. The financial burden would be offset by the money saved in hospital, ambulance and criminal justice services that would not be stressed with the added burden that it is now bearing due to the homeless.
Wendy Manganaro, Fed With Faith
I would reduce homelessness by creating more transitional programs, as people usually don’t become homeless overnight. It may have taken years of unfortunate circumstances or decisions, so putting a roof over one’s head and walking away is not the answer. To successfully transition someone from the streets to housing is a process that can sometimes take up to 18 months.
From Manganaro: Why I’m not afraid to check underpasses at midnight to help homeless people
Transitional programs need to be geared to answering the causes of homelessness, which can include addiction, mental health, lack of employment, criminal backgrounds, and, of course, lack of everyday life skills. Transitional programs do not have to be a typical four-walled building with more rules than compassion. I would love to see transitional living facilities that focus on a plan that helps individual needs instead of a cookie-cutter, one-size-fits-all program. Some of these differences include realizing that not all homeless want to be housed, so what can we offer them as an alternative? A safe city-sanctioned tent city with social workers and case managers on site to help them with their individual needs.
J. “Divine” Alexander, Campus Barber Shop
I will continue to provide haircuts for the homeless with the wonderful team of Fluer’s Dream and all the barbers who help to make the outreach a success. I would also like the “compassionate city” of Louisville to adopt the model from Fort Worth, Texas, where they pay the homeless in exchange for working to help keep the city clean. The program, called Clean Slate, is funded by the city and run by a local shelter. Officials say it’s working, and several other cities have started similar programs.
This kind of compassion is the ultimate win-win. This can happen. It’s possible here.
From Alexander: How a free haircut can help a homeless person change his situation
Dick Kaukas, St. John Center for Homeless Men
Adequately support the Louisville Affordable Housing Trust Fund with tax dollars. There is not enough housing in Louisville at rents very low-income people, including homeless people, can pay. Building these houses is a risk for developers because the profit margins are so thin. A well-financed fund would allow more contractors to put up the needed homes — on empty lots or by renewing dilapidated housing — for homeless people and others.
Housing is a right and we should be willing to pay for it.
From Kaukas: The men of St. John Center are like people everywhere; they just happen to be homeless
Bud Hixson, Highlands resident and attorney
Reducing homelessness in Jefferson County could be accomplished by a more enlightened legislature ending the war on the poor. Poor people and people of color make up too large a percentage of those put through the meat grinder of the judicial system. This is clogging our courts, depriving judges of time to give adequate consideration to serious cases and leading to quick and dirty dispensation of justice.
The Department of Justice found in Ferguson, Missouri: “Individuals may confront escalating debt; face repeated, unnecessary incarceration for nonpayment despite posing no danger to the community; lose their jobs; and become trapped in cycles of poverty that can be nearly impossible to escape,” Vanita Gupta and Lisa Foster wrote. “Furthermore, in addition to being unlawful, to the extent that these practices are geared not toward addressing public safety, but rather toward raising revenue, they can cast doubt on the impartiality of the tribunal and erode trust between local governments and their constituents.”
From Hixson: If we don’t build central homeless camps, we will all pay a high price
Louisville has a Ferguson, Missouri, problem and a swollen police state incarcerates and penalizes where rehabilitative and benevolent programs would better heal social ills. Any progress in reducing penalties and statutory infractions that trap poor people in repeated arrest and jail cycles would serve the community. Louisville cannot outsource the problem of hunger and homelessness to the established religious institutions or ad hoc cults and associations. The shame of people living under bridges should be nailed on the doors of GLI, Metro Council and the mayor, and finally, we the people.