Panel discusses ongoing homelessness at ‘Rooster Booster’
Officials who work with homeless adults and student said Thursday homelessness is misunderstood, and that the issue affects more people than the public might suspect.
Officials representing Audubon Area Community Services, Daviess County Public Schools, St. Joseph Peace Mission and St. Benedict’s Homeless Shelter and the Daniel Pitino Shelter discussed homelessness Thursday morning at the Greater Owensboro Chamber of Commerce’s “Rooster Booster” breakfast meeting.
While the extent of the problem can be hard to gauge, people can help curb homelessness through community involvement, the officials said.
Locally, the numbers of people who are homeless fluctuate.
Attempts to count the homeless, such as the annual “point in time count” in January, aren’t exact.
“It’s a moving target,” said Brandon Harley, deputy CEO at Audubon Area Community Services. “Sometimes the data doesn’t tell the whole story.”
“It’s very hidden in Owensboro,” said Harry Pedigo, director of the Pitino Shelter and St. Benedict’s. “At any time, any of us could experience homelessness.”
Megan Nicodemus, Family Resource Youth Services Center director for the county schools, said students who would be considered homeless may not identify themselves or request services.
“Several students are ‘couch-hopping,’ ” Nicodemus said, and that, “every day they are thinking, ‘whose couch am I going to sleep on next?’
“They’re proud. They don’t want to tell me,” Nicodemus said. “They don’t want to ask for help.”
Crystal Sapp, executive director of St. Joseph Peace Mission said the agency works with juveniles who are homeless, largely because their parents don’t have stable housing.
The organization serves about 250 juveniles annually, Sapp said.
People who are homeless can be hard to identify, because they do not present themselves to traditional homeless programs.
“There is a large subsection of people who are bouncing from home to home,” Harley said.
While a person may have a place to stay one night, “it doesn’t mean the next night they will,” Harley said. “Just because you’re not seeing someone standing on the side of the road doesn’t mean they aren’t facing homelessness.”
Harley called people who face uncertainty about where they’ll stay from day to day the “quiet homeless.”
When asked if homeless men and women are bussed into the city, Pedigo said the homeless population is transient, but that other cities aren’t sending large numbers of people to Owensboro.
“I’m not seeing anybody bussed in from Chicago,” Pedigo said.
Smaller communities in the region send people to Owensboro, because those communities don’t have their own resources, Pedigo said.
On the other hand, Owensboro shelters will send homeless person to other communities if he or she has access to resources or help there, Pedigo said.
“We want them to get back to where they have support,” Pedigo said.
Sapp said while the community has resources, people who are homeless might not know how to receive assistance.
“It’s very hard to go get a job if you’re homeless and don’t have a birth certificate or a Social Security card,” Sapp said.
People can assist by volunteering with organizations, Sapp said.
“Reach out to these partners and say, ‘I can help them apply for a birth certificate,’ ” Sapp said.
People with trade skills who can train people experiencing homelessness in the trade would also be a benefit, Sapp said.
“Give them that feeling of self-worth,” Sapp said.
Wade asked people to get involved in agencies that can work with the homeless.
“I encourage each of you to not think the problem is so big you can’t impact it,” Wade said.