Residents brainstorm on ending homelessness

Mike Chesser has been combating homelessness for about two decades.

He’s battled bureaucrats, educated people who think homelessness stems from laziness and labored to get homes built so people don’t have to live in tents and doorways.

It is emotional work. But the executive director of United Housing Connections said nothing has touched him quite as much as the turnout and ideas generated from a town hall meeting on homelessness last Wednesday at Furman University.

The forum was sponsored by Chesser’s organization and A Year of Altruism in response to a series of articles last November in The Greenville News that described the lives of Greenville County’s homeless and the problems they face.

The newspaper found that the number of young people and women who are homeless has increased, that violence from within the homeless community and from the general public is a constant threat and that systemic problems in government programs shut people out of housing.

Greenville County includes 2,300 residents who are homeless, the second highest number in the state after Richland County. They are trapped by low-paying jobs and a lack of affordable housing, the series found.

Almost 200 people took part in the Furman meeting, and 135 of them filled out a form listing their ideas on how to combat homelessness. Some proposed general ideas such as more transportation, medical care, mental health services. Get businesses to offer better-paying jobs.

Others drilled in with more specific ideas.

Dottie Pittman, a retired teacher, said she’d like to see a small business started along the lines of Ten Thousand Villages that would sell crafts, artwork and other items made by people who are homeless.

Ten Thousand Villages was started in 1946 by a woman selling items from the trunk of her car. The items had been made by hand in Puerto Rico. The idea was to pay the artisans a fair wage to help lift them from poverty. Its reach is now global and includes a store in Greenville.

“I will pay $5 for a folded piece of paper — a greeting card — because I know it’s going to help somebody,” Pittman said.

The idea has special merit, Chesser said, because many people who are homeless have a great deal of artistic talent.

In fact, many of the homeless people profiled in The Greenville News series are artists and musicians. The art room at Triune Mercy Center, a church that works to integrate the homeless with the community, is a particularly popular part of the ministry.

Another person at the forum suggested staging music events and providing music education for children and families. Also suggested was an expansion of another Triune program, the Playback Café, in which local actors improvise scenes that reflect a life story told by a homeless person in the audience. The event is held every other Wednesday at Triune on Poinsett Highway.

The Rev. Deb Richardson-Moore, Triune pastor, has said the plays are empowering to people when they can see their lives affirmed. Several people at the forum suggested that perhaps such events could be staged in some of Greenville’s theaters to provide a broader audience.

An idea that was posed many times was for Greenville to adopt what has become known as the Utah model. About nine years ago, Utah decided to eradicate homelessness by providing housing first. No requirements; here’s a home. The goal was to eliminate homelessness in a decade.

At the time, Utah totaled the costs in visits to emergency rooms by homeless people and the costs to house people in jail for vagrancy and came up with an annual expenditure of $16,670 per person. The same report found it would cost $11,000 for a social worker and housing. If the resident stops working with the social worker, the resident keeps the apartment.

Homelessness has been reduced there by more than 75 percent, according to the state report. Other states such as Minnesota and New York have done the same, as have cities such as Nashville and Charlotte.

“Once people are in houses and have communities, they can begin to grow and move on,” Joe Fretwell, a Furman sophomore, wrote on his form. In an interview, he added, “Homelessness is a pressing problem that gets pushed to the side.”

Fretwell, a political science major and poverty studies minor, said he believes homeless people would benefit from consistency and relationships.

“Dignified, long-term housing with some type of case management,” he wrote, and listed Reedy Place as an example. Reedy Place is Greenville’s only housing first program. It is, however, only for homeless people with mental illness.

Nick Bush, the team leader at United Ministries’ Place of Hope, a daytime shelter for homeless people, agreed housing first models would work in Greenville, especially with case management and tied to job programs.

He and several others also mentioned a need for SRO, single room occupancy units.

Bush wrote on his form that harnessing the energy people showed by giving blankets and coats to those living in Tent City under the Pete Hollis bridge, which was featured in The Greenville News stories, into work with existing agencies would go a long way toward ending homelessness.

Several people mentioned the need for education, and not just for the homeless. They said people need to realize not everyone who is homeless is mentally ill or addicted to drugs. Every person who is homeless comes to the situation in a different way, for a different reason. Those who work with the homeless say there is usually an event that tips a precarious life into homelessness.

They also say many people are a lost job or serious illness away from the streets.

Several people said that among those who need education are state legislators.

Lee Dietz, who retired after selling his janitorial business, said, “We need to corral a massive group of people. We’re constituents and we need to invite them to a meeting and say we have things to discuss with you.”

South Carolina state government does not provide money from its general fund specifically to end homelessness.

“That’s a sad commentary on South Carolina,” Dietz said. “Homeless people are out there and they have worth.”

One law that several people said should be changed is the requirement that the driver’s license or identification card of anyone convicted of a violent crime be marked with the letters CVO, standing for criminal violent offender, when they’re released from prison.

“It’s inhumane to do something like that,” Dietz said. It keeps them from jobs and embarrasses them every time they have to show identification. The past never goes away.

Participants at the town hall meeting were asked whether they would be interested in continuing the conversation and perhaps serving on a committee of some sort. About a dozen said no, and 70 said yes. The others did not answer the question, but many of them said they already work in some fashion with the homeless.

Asked what area they wanted to work in, most people said they want to build relationships with the homeless, which service providers say is the true solution. One person at a time. Those who have much helping those who have little.

Chesser said his organization would be willing to give the training necessary to people who have never worked with the homeless before.

Chesser said the response offers a sound underpinning going forward.

The next step will be evaluating the forms, matching interests with action and convening another symposium in September.

“I thought it was phenomenal,” Chesser said. “The community wants to help.”