INC NEWS - Accounting for Durham's homeless: 'A world of hurt'

Sun Mar 25 13:17:38 EDT 2007

This is a good article given that so many of our neighborhoods are struggling to help Durham's homeless.  It is also timely because our group may have an opportunity to take more of a leading role in helping to develop solutions that work in Durham.  I am looking forward to seeing everyone's shining faces on Tuesday night.   
Ken Gasch

Accounting for Durham's homeless: 'A world of hurt'
March 24, 2007

By Leah Konen, The Herald-Sun 
At 46, Michael Jones celebrated graduation.    

But Jones wasn't wearing a cap and gown or marching to "Pomp and Circumstance."    

He graduated from Urban Ministries of Durham's addiction recovery program and traded homelessness and drug abuse for a better life.    

"I can't believe I finally finished something," he said. "When I was out there using, I never finished anything."     

Jones came to the shelter after drug and alcohol addiction rendered him homeless last summer.    

And according to the 2007 Triangle Point-In-Time Count -- a one-night total of all the homeless in Durham, Wake and Orange counties -- 539 people in Durham are in similar circumstances.     

The number is up from the 2006 count of 502, according to Triangle United Way, the organization that compiled the information.    

Stan Holt, homelessness specialist for Triangle United Way, said he recognized the limits of a one-night count.    

"It just doesn't give us a full picture of all the people who fall into the homeless system," he said. "But it's the only kind of methodology that we have."    

Lloyd Schmeidler, executive director of Urban Ministries, said the shelter's own data reflect these findings.     

Although the average nightly bed count is decreasing, more people are coming for shorter stays, he said, which means the number of homeless people in Durham is actually increasing.     

Spencer Bradford, program director at Urban Ministries, estimated that there are 5,000 to 6,000 homeless people in Durham over the course of a year. That estimate includes people who are homeless from one night to the entire year.    

Schmeidler attributed homelessness to a variety of factors, including lack of affordable housing and the need for better wages. But there are also more personal causes, he said.     

"People end up at a shelter because their social support structure has disintegrated," he said.    

As a result of addictions, mental illness, abuse or other issues, people exhaust their support networks, including family, friends, even pastors.    

"Without that kind of support, I think we can all imagine we would be in a world of hurt," Schmeidler said.    

He said it's also important that groups in the area do what they can to help prevent recurring homelessness, by helping people resolve conflicts with a landlord or get the public assistance they are entitled to, for example.    

Urban Ministries offers short-term meal and housing assistance to anyone, but many residents in long-term programs are able to truly break the cycle of poverty.    

Twenty-five to 30 people graduate from the addiction recovery program each year, Schmeidler said.    

Jones was among them this time.    

"When I first got here, I really didn't want to be here because I didn't want to face the facts," he said of his first days in the program. "It turned out to be that everything they were saying was true. ... So many times I wanted to get down on myself, but [everyone here] believed in me."    

And Jones has certainly turned his life around.    

This week he leaves for Florida to accept a job as foreman at a construction company, where he'll have better pay and more responsibilities than he's ever had before.    

"I'm trying to lead by example," he said. "I'm trying to show these guys that I'm not just in here talking about it. I gotta be about it." 

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