What Is It Gonna Take?

Last week Georgia experienced one of the coldest nights of this season and I was at the office late.  As I left the building headed to my car, I was stuck with  thoughts about the numbers of homeless persons who were unable to secure shelter from that very cold, awful wind and dampness.  By the time I got to my car, I realized it was just too much for anyone to bear.  At that very moment I sat in silence and said a prayer for all the homeless persons with no place to go, for those who were able to find emergency shelter or transitional housing and I was careful not to forget all the staff and volunteers who are committed to working so diligently doing their best to make it all better.

The next morning I arrived at the office to be confronted with my worst fear, a very disturbing communication from staff of a well respected Cobb County homeless service provider wrote me to say that one of the people who frequented their community kitchen had died the previous evening from exposure. My fears and tears had been validated and I felt awful.  Later I learned that this gentleman's name was Dominic. His friends described him as a quiet sort. "He never gave anybody any trouble" said a close friend. Dominic was not unlike most of us in that he was a son, a father, had a family, children and a network of friends just like many other homeless individuals.  "Dom drank a quart of vodka, went to sleep and woke up in heaven, at least that's the way I choose to see it", said a close friend and case manager.  

I am alarmed and disappointed that we are still in this day and age dealing with homeless people freezing to death. There are those of us who have been working in this arena since the 1980s when homelessness began to emerge on an epidemic level.  We've been at this for over 20 years now. Annually there are millions of dollars funding  thousands of homeless services.  I. want to encourage each of us to take a step back to examine and see what crack Dominic fell through. Was Dominic a lone statistic?  I know not. Data from municipalities across the state document that numbers of homeless people die from exposure every year. They remain the silent citizens we don't have to acknowledge passing.

I commend Georgia and the nation  being at the threshold of success in eliminating homelessness for persons who are able to conform to a structured system and live in community. But what about those that cannot? What about our homeless friends that suffer from the multiple diagnosis' of mental illness and addiction?  Have we failed to recognize  that many of these individuals can't be treated with programs designed for persons  capable of living in a structured environment or in close quarters? Don't we need to step back and begin to look at how our state and communities can work together to address the issues of so many of our homeless "campers"?  Yes, enforcing local ordinances and placing law enforcement in the uncomfortable predicament of evicting homeless persons from public or private land is one solution.  And then there are communities who command it's homeless population to move along

to another community and this is not a suitable resolution either. Let's open a door to look at how we can work collectively confronting all the issues concerning this difficult to serve population and resolve that together its going to be hard road to travel but we can collectively find a better solution.

Sincerely,

Katheryn Preston