Homelessness appears to be growing problem in Licking County

Newark Advocate

NEWARK – They live in tents, under bridges, in cars, in the woods, sometimes in local shelters or with a friend for a while, but never have a home of their own.

The number of homeless seems to have increased in recent years, possibly coinciding with a spike in drug use. Or, maybe the community is just more aware of their plight, as they became more visible, especially in the revitalized downtown Newark area.

The annual Point In Time homeless count recently revealed 153 sheltered individuals and 45 un-sheltered in Licking County, for a total of 198, according to Deb Tegtmeyer, executive director of the Licking County Coalition for Housing.

She said the Department of Housing and Urban Development suggests the actual number is likely 2.5 to 3 times greater. Five years ago, the county's total was 183.

Justin Packard, a 35-year-old man living in a tent, recently braved cold temperatures to sit at the Ohio 16 exit ramp to Cedar Street, holding a sign that read: "Homeless. Please Help. God Bless."

He was a stay-at-home dad for seven years, before a divorce started his downward spiral.

"I started working, but got anxiety bad and started drinking, and the drinking sort of took over, and then I just lost everything," Packard said. "A lot of us are out here because we do have issues with drinking or drugs. Most people I know, it's drinking.

"I've met people that actually like it (being homeless). They say it makes them feel free. Myself, I prefer not to be."

Packard has been homeless a few times, usually for a few months at a time.

Bob and his dog, Daisy, sit in a tent they share with friends and two other dogs in Newark.

"This time seems like it'll be longer because I burned all my bridges," he said. "Rehab is probably the only way I'm ever going to get fixed."

Alcohol abuse got him kicked out of St. Vincent Haven men's shelter and cost him a chance to stay with family here, he said.

Tegtmeyer said it's difficult to find those who are un-sheltered. They went all over the county, she said, but found more in the Newark area.

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"We’re working toward as accurate a count as we can, but it’s pretty elusive," Tegtmeyer said. "We know people out there don’t want to be counted and don’t want to be found. We’re getting better at knowing them and finding them. We keep track all year now.”

Newark City Schools recently counted 220 students as homeless, but there were 300 homeless students in the district at the end of the 2017-18 school year. The district had an enrollment of 6,427 in January.

Tara Boyer, the school district's assistant curriculum director and homeless liaison, said a federal law required schools to start counting homeless students a couple years ago. Schools, she said, count differently than HUD. For example, she said a mom forced to move in with her parents for financial reasons would be counted by the school, but not HUD.

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Capt. Denise Martin, of the Salvation Army, said her organization's shelter on East Main Street has been at capacity since about October. The shelter has 50 beds, 20 for men, 12 for women, and six family rooms. Residents can stay up to 90 days.

"The minute we have a room, and it's cleaned, it's filled again," Martin said.

Bob and Justin in their tent, Jan. 30, 2019. Temperatures were below 0 but the two, and their tent-mates all refused to go into warming shelters because they did not want to leave their dogs behind. Instead they hunkered down with sleeping bags and a propane heater running all night to survive the cold.

The reason people are homeless is difficult to pinpoint, but Martin said she sees one overriding obstacle to turning their lives around.

"In my opinion, from what I see here, it's a mental health issue, and the mental health issue often leads to addiction issues," Martin said.

In addition to the Salvation Army, St. Vincent de Paul operates a 26-bed men's shelter called St. Vincent Haven, a 24-apartment transitional housing facility called The Gardens on Sixth, and houses people in local hotels and motels.

The housing coalition provides 40 units of transitional housing throughout the community, and has nine couples, 71 single adults and 22 families on a waiting list for housing.

Tegtmeyer said transitional housing residents can be counted as homeless, but she did not count the 23 Gardens residents. The United Way withdrew funding from St. Vincent de Paul because of alleged discrimination of gay and unmarried couples.

"The Gardens changed their policies, so we're not entirely sure," Tegtmeyer said. "A few months ago, (St. Vincent de Paul Housing Facilities executive director) John Paul Munhall said they'd start scaling back a bit to make sure they were appropriately staffed to manage the units."

More:United Way denies funding to St. Vincent de Paul for housing

Jason Offenbaker, with Crossroad Crusaders, said the group started doing mobile outreach last year to serve the needs of the homeless, providing food, water, snacks, blankets and tents. The group provides holiday meals at the American Legion hall, serving about 400 people each time.

He organized a warming shelter at United Methodist Church when temperatures recently dipped below zero. The shelter had 50 to 60 people there during the day and about 30 at night.

“We took a guy to the hospital with frostbite on his hands," Offenbaker said. "He arrived at 3:30 a.m. After a few hours, the pain didn’t go away. He said he had a place that week and people kicked him out and he had nowhere to go and heard about us.”

The man went to Licking Memorial Hospital and then to Riverside Hospital, in Columbus, Offenbaker said. He does not know what happened to the man after he went to Columbus.

Jen Kanagy, who joined with Patricia Perry a year ago to operate the Newark Homeless Outreach, said homelessness has increased.

"It definitely has, just in the course of the last year," Kanagy said. "There's more people in tents this winter than last year. People come out of jail with no resources, and that's really scary."

Newark Homeless Outreach provides food and clothing to people from a tent set up on Saturdays at the corner of East Main and Buena Vista streets.

Kanagy said they've seen people of all ages, from 16-year-olds to 18-year-olds, to the elderly. They've seen parents with children, working people and pregnant women.

“We’ve seen an elderly female who fell on hard times, lost a job and was sleeping in the woods," Kanagy said.

Perry said Newark Homeless Outreach serves about 50 to 75 people on Saturdays, starting at noon.

"We're not going away," Perry said. "We've been here a year and we've been here every Saturday. We talk to them and they're not afraid to talk to us.

"We've seen people fresh out of jail in flip flops. A lot are couch surfers. They don't know where they are going to sleep the next night. A lot of it is drugs. I'd say 75 percent of the people we see are addicted to drugs."

One man who stopped by the Newark Homeless Outreach last weekend said he became homeless when his marriage of 20 years ended when his wife started cheating on him. He stayed under bridges and around churches until moving in with a friend four months ago.

Todd Wilson said he drank from age 9 to age 50 but has been sober for five years. He was homeless for a year, until a couple months ago.

"No way in hell you can tell me you like it out here," Wilson said. "I got sober because I got tired of it."

Stephanie Helmondollar, who visited the Newark Homeless Outreach, said she spent 200 days in jail because of drug use. She said the drug epidemic has increased homelessness because it's difficult to make the transition from imprisonment to living a normal life.

"They release you from jail back to into the wild, back to what you know," Helmondollar said.

Nick Eddy, 32, said he has been homeless off and on for three years. He lost custody of his kids, split from his wife and lost his drive for anything. He remains completely out of contact with his kids.
Nick was staying at the warming shelter at Central Christian Church when temperatures dropped below zero. He said the shelters were a blessing, as people could die, frozen to the ground and no one would know if they were dead or alive.
"A lot of people think that us homeless that are out there, that we're lazy. That we don't want to go to work. I worked harder being homeless than any job. And I've been a mason and worked construction. It's a lot harder out here on the streets than in any other job."

Deb Dingus, director of the United Way of Licking County, told the Licking County Commissioners there are 177 prisoners from Licking County due to be released from state institutions throughout the year. That's in addition to those released from the local jail.

"If we can get them connected before they get on the street, it will be much easier to help them not relapse," Dingus said.

kmallett@newarkadvocate.com

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Twitter: @kmallett1958