Housing sought for Tent City residents
Five service organizations and the county of Greenville are working to find permanent housing for the people living under the Pete Hollis bridge in a homeless encampment known as Tent City.
If the county can negotiate a lease with the South Carolina Department of Transportation, which owns the property under the state highway, a trailer will be placed there and extensive case management will be coordinated by Miracle Hill, the Salvation Army, Triune Mercy Center, United Ministries and the Mental Health Center.
No-trespassing signs would be erected, and the county would have the authority to displace anyone not working with the service agencies.
Reid Lehman, the president and chief operating officer for Miracle Hill, said members of the five organizations have been meeting to discuss compassionate solutions for Tent City residents.
"It's time to quit talking and start doing," he said.
Linda McDonald, the chief counsel for SCDOT, could not be reached for comment on whether the agency will lease the property to the county. The plan hinges on the ability of the county to do so, Lehman said. If a lease can be negotiated, the group hopes Tent City will be closed by the end of the summer.
The Greenville News featured the community in a series about the growing homeless population in November. Conditions under the bridge have since deteriorated. While the number of 911 calls have remained steady year over year, the number of serious crimes such as assault, criminal domestic violence and robbery have increased, records from the Sheriff's Office show.
Many of the people featured in the newspaper stories have left Tent City, including Steve and Mary Payne, who were attacked by another resident in January. Mary has been living with her mother and Steve at the Salvation Army shelter. Ten years homeless, the Paynes will move into permanent housing this summer after a house is renovated by United Housing Connections.
Greg Rivenbark, who has been an on-again, off-again Tent City resident, said a lot of people have moved back with families or found someplace else to stay. He estimated about 50 people are living there now, though the population swelled to 100 or more after the newspaper series.
Sheriff's deputies have reported some of the new residents are from outside the area, including other states.
"It's a public safety issue, a public health issue," said Joe Kernell, the county administrator. "It's not good for the surrounding community."
State law makes it illegal to live under a public roadway for more than 48 consecutive hours, but Sheriff Steve Loftis has said that is unenforceable because he'd have to position a deputy under the bridge round-the-clock.
Lehman said initially the service agencies considered opening a shelter similar to one that was established for Hurricane Katrina evacuees and working to place the Tent City residents elsewhere.
Then they decided intensive case management could allow the residents to move directly to their next, more stable, life.
"All of us are working intensively to stretch a little further," Lehman said.
Lehman has raised about $130,000 so far from the community and from local foundations to support the effort. That money will pay for deposits, rent, whatever the person needs to move into a home.
"The big challenge is how to keep them there longer," Lehman said.
Some will need long-term funding. Others will need help holding onto jobs or help with transportation — many of the things that caused them to be homeless in the first place.
Rivenbark said he and his girlfriend are looking for a place, but the biggest problem is transportation to a promised carpentry job. He has a moped that needs about $300 in repairs, he said.
He said he thinks the plan by the service agencies is a great idea.
"It could work," he said.
Lehman said the effort will test the theory that was advanced by people in the newspaper series that no one chooses to be homeless. In his 34 years working with the homeless, he has found about 10 percent of the population actually does choose to be homeless.
"There will be people out there who prefer to be there," he said. "The effort will only work if it's impossible to remain under the bridge."
That's where the involvement of the county and the Greenville County Sheriff's Office comes in.
In public forums in recent months, conversations have noted the work service agencies do to help with lifestyle changes, but it's also been said that the community must fill the gaps.
Lehman said he believes there needs to be a better understanding of what those gaps are, precisely what infrastructure needs to be put in place to help solve the problem.
"Nothing's going to happen until somebody facilitates effective conversation," he said.
So far there have been only vague descriptions of what keeps people homeless, such as few jobs, lack of affordable housing and restricted public transportation, Lehman said.
He also said he thinks the emphasis on the gaps in the community has downplayed the longstanding and effective work the various agencies have accomplished, especially in helping with the sizable number people who are mentally ill or abuse drugs and alcohol.
"What are we asking for the public to do?" he said. "If we sit and talk together and all agree on the top three or four bullet points, I bet we can get it accomplished."
And if this effort succeeds, Lehman said, it would serve as a pilot program for how the service agencies can help the other homeless encampments throughout the county.
WHAT YOU CAN DO RIGHT NOW
• Contribute money to the Tent City effort or to a service provider. To donate, send checks to any of the four non-profits working on the project: Triune, Miracle Hill, Salvation Army or United Ministries, marked for Tent City Relief Fund.
• Establish a relationship with a homeless person and stick with him or her.
• Volunteer for an agency.
• Refrain from taking anything to Tent City.