Long-term solutions sought for Greenville’s homeless

Greenville’s outpouring of generosity has tipped the balance in Tent City.

The homeless encampment underneath the Pete Hollis Bridge has in recent weeks experienced overcrowding and an increase in violence, Tent City residents and those who work with the homeless say.

They believe it’s a result of the overwhelming number of material donations Greenville residents have offered since a series in The Greenville News in November detailed the lives of the homeless.

But now the crisis of need at Tent City has passed, said Bruce Forbes, president of Upstate Homeless Coalition, and it’s time for the community to work together toward lasting solutions.

The News series found homelessness in Greenville County is growing, especially among women and younger people, and that myriad social service programs, from mental health to addiction to temporary housing, are strained to meet the needs.

The series has prompted a wide-ranging discussion among residents about what shape help should take, from emergency aid to enduring solutions. Dozens of people have taken blankets, canned goods and firewood to Tent City to ease the immediate threat of hunger and cold.

And an array of people — beyond those in service agencies who work with the homeless — are beginning to consider the problem from a holistic view.

Rabbi Marc Wilson, founder and director of the Year of Altruism, said the organization intends to hold a citywide meeting to discuss ways to address the problem. No date has been set, but he anticipates the result to be five or six specific actions that will help the homeless get off the street.

“It might take the form of what are five things we shouldn’t be doing and five things we should be doing,” he said.

He said he would hope the group would be able to determine where the gaps are in services to the community.

Schools such as Shannon Forest Christian School and students at Furman University have discussed methods of combating homelessness.

The encampment under the bridge has grown in recent weeks. “The outpouring of goodwill has generated more people who want to get their share of the goodies,” Forbes said. “There’s a certain magical number that can work in a group.”

Once the scale is tipped, control is lost, he said.

“That group down there was a community. Others have come in and muddied up the water,” Forbes said.

In the past two weeks, deputies have received 12 calls from people at Tent City. Four were assault calls, including an assault on Steve Payne, one of the people profiled in The Greenville News series who has taken on a leadership role to manage the abundance of donations.

In the first two weeks of last year, two assaults were reported at Tent City, said Sheriff’s Deputy Drew Pinciaro.

Payne said he was hit in the head on Jan. 10 with a baseball bat but said he doesn’t remember the attack and cannot identify the attacker. Payne said he was in his tent when someone started cursing at his wife, Mary.

“I went out on him,” Payne said.

Payne said he spent the weekend in Greenville Memorial Hospital. His wife was treated for a fractured hip, he said. She was trying to break up the fight, he said.

Another man injured in the same incident filed charges but the suspect hasn’t been arrested, Pinciaro said.

“Tent City used to have a rough reputation,” Payne said. “Things got better and now it’s getting back to a rough reputation.”

He said he has warned residents that if the unrest continues, people will stop helping them.

The other calls to Tent City involved serving a warrant, a medical problem, fire and follow-up visits, he said.

Forbes said the Upstate Homeless Coalition committee that works on programs to end chronic homelessness met last week and talked about ways the goodwill from the community could be harnessed more appropriately.

As TheGreenville News series reported, giving a blanket or coat doesn’t help a homeless person find permanent housing or a job.

“More stuff isn’t going to get them out from under the bridge faster,” Forbes said.

Lisa Harris, who lives at Tent City, said she tried to hold a yard sale with some of the donated excess a week ago to raise money for a fund to buy trailers or low-income housing. She sold 25 cents worth of items and collected even more goods from passersby.

She pointed to a huge pile of goods covered by a tarp and a tent that was full.

“We don’t need any more things,” she said. “We need jobs.”

Harris also said she doesn’t intend to have another yard sale.

“People are talking junk about we shouldn’t sell stuff that was donated,” she said.

The Rev. Deb Richardson-Moore, pastor at Triune Mercy Center, said she has decided not to include Tent City in Backyard Mission Day tours, which takes groups from area churches on an educational tour of poverty in Greenville.

“We don’t want to buy into anything that resembles taking goods down there.”

Similarly, on March 1, Triune, which provides an array of services to the homeless, will close its clothes closet, which allows the poor and the homeless to get clothes as needed. Richardson-Moore said it had become a free store. She wants to ensure that Triune services are available to those people who are involved in Triune programs.

Forbes said the Ending Chronic Homelessness Committee members brainstormed ideas and will continue to do so at the next monthly meeting Feb. 11. One idea broached was to set up a trust account for people to donate toward rent assistance.

They also want to hold a town hall meeting to educate the public about what is known as toxic charity, the help that actually does more harm than good.

“We need to differentiate between kindness and loving someone,” Forbes said.

Kindness is giving a blanket and feeling good about it. Loving someone is truly making an effort to help the person live a better life — a living wage, affordable housing, he said.

Forbes supports an idea of creating a more structured tent city managed by an agency of some sort. Who moves in is controlled. Facilities for bathing and hygiene are provided. Cooking and heating are more standardized rather that the fire pits and propane-fueled heaters Tent City residents have now.

But that idea isn’t universally accepted. Reid Lehman, the executive director of Miracle Hill, has said he would fight vigorously if such a place were seriously advocated. He said the homeless need structure and services that come from being in a program or shelter.

Forbes also suggested the idea of someone donating a housing complex of some kind to provide single rooms to the homeless.

There are multiple programs in Greenville County that provide transitional and permanent housing for people who have been homeless but there aren’t enough beds, The Greenville News series showed.

“With an SRO (single-room occupancy) we could transport everybody at Tent City to a place they could stay,” Forbes said.

Greenville County, with the second-highest number of homeless people in the state after Richland County, needs more space for families to stay together, he said. More mental health services. More addiction services.

Forbes said the area needs long-term treatment programs for substance abusers — six-, 12-, 18-month programs that offer treatment and nutrition.

“There is no such thing as 30-day treatment. That is a joke,” he said.

Richardson-Moore said Triune is going to hire a second social worker to work closely with people who are unable to go through the necessary steps of getting out of homelessness on their own, such as obtaining an identification card or Social Security card.

“Handholding,” she said, “almost like we do for an elderly parent.”

In the end, though, significant changes are needed in the way people think, Forbes said.

Employers need to pay more and to not rule out an individual because he or she has a criminal record, he said.

“I don’t think it’s fair when people do their time and then we give them a life sentence with regard to employment,” Forbes said. “Keeping people down. I don’t understand that mentality at all.”

Richardson-Moore said one thing people can do immediately is worship at Triune on Sunday mornings and eat lunch afterward or volunteer in the art room on Sunday afternoons.

“This is all about relationships,” she said. “The best things we do combine the homeless and the middle class.”