Jack De Baets leans back against a concrete wall in his motorized wheelchair. A large painting of yellow flowers hangs behind him, and to his right, the sagging bed he sleeps in is covered with the same colorful patchwork quilt as the other 10 beds in the day room at Eugene Mission, a faith-based shelter for the homeless.
The 80-year-old De Baets dislikes the term homeless, preferring the less direct phrase “friends and neighbors,” but he offers a despondent view of the future for these friends and neighbors.
“Why won’t homelessness be fixed? Because it is one of those things that cannot be avoided. It will never be fixed because there is no way to fix it,” De Baets said. “Man’s been down and can’t get back up again.”
With winter weather seeping in, the rain and cold doesn’t offer reprieve for any of the homeless people with no shelter to protect them other than bridges and overpasses. On any given night, 2,296 people can be found living on the streets in Lane County, according to the county’s Human Services Commission.
“I stayed out when it snowed last year… because I feel that coming to the mission is like saying I give up. It nearly killed me though,” said Jim Wood at the Eugene Mission on Monday. “There are diseases on these streets, mainly intestinal. I went to the Peace Health Urgent Care in Springfield because I was sick and spewing up everything, but all they wanted to do was test me for drugs.”
Officials from Lane County, Eugene and Springfield, along with United Way of Lane County workers, say they realized the dire situations these people face, but were unaware of the circumstances causing them. In a coordinated effort, the groups decided to join the nationwide movement Project Homeless Connect, a plan to define homelessness, raise awareness about it in Lane County and eradicate chronic homelessness in 10 years.
About 10 percent of the homeless population are chronically homeless. The remaining 90 percent are situational, meaning they are on the streets because of an acute life crisis such as divorce, domestic violence, eviction, a job loss or a medical crisis, according to a report from the Project Homeless Connect. Chronic homelessness includes people who have lived on the streets for more than one year, and is a more visible and costly form of homelessness. Many tend to live in make-shift shelters, tents, abandoned cars, deserted buildings and illegal campsites on the streets and in the neighborhoods.
“All homelessness can be eradicated, and prior to 1980 there were also poor people, but these people had places to live. This is something that was not really a problem before that,” said Richie Weinman, co-chair for Project Homeless Connect in Lane County.
Though the organization may have lofty goals, some of those with their hands and their hearts deep in the effort to help families and individuals on the streets feel homelessness is irreparable, and say the numbers are actually increasing.
“Anyone saying they can fix the problem is, well, naive. They don’t understand the problem and therefore don’t understand the solution,” said Lynn Antis, assistant director at the Eugene Mission. “Last winter, we had more numbers than ever before, and we had to buy more beds. The homeless population continues to go up, and it is not going down.”
The Mission houses the largest number of Eugene’s homeless population, but receives no revenue from the government. Money from private individuals and other foundations keep the Mission afloat, but Antis said they don’t necessarily want government funding because it always comes with “strings attached.”
But the City of Eugene isn’t turning its back on the homeless. In fact, it provides $1.4 million annually to a number of programs. Those funds and resources from Springfield are funneled into the Lane County Human Services Commission, which then allocates the money within the two cities.
The support goes to programs such as the First Place Family Center, a day-care facility for homeless families where people can access many amenities, such as food, showers, laundry facilities, telephones and the Internet. Also funded are the New Roads program run by the homeless and run-away youth group Looking Glass, and the single-adult program Eugene Service Station.
Government funding helps those who are left out or pushed out onto the streets, but the amount of funding realistically needed to eradicate homelessness is so large, many say the problem is only being placated and not fixed.
“We have a 10-year plan, but plans are only as good as the funding they receive,” Weinman said. “It would take hundreds of millions of dollars to fully fix the problem of homelessness.”
Poverty doesn’t define homelessness, and many families are working, eating and paying some bills. However, many just can’t find a place to live or a landlord that will accept them. Some families may also have poor credit history or evictions on their records. And with a shortage of housing in Lane County – there is a 0 to 2-percent vacancy rate in the county – many struggle to find a stable home, Weinman said.
“We have a housing shortage to boot,” he said. “Those with the most resources will get housed and those with the least won’t – it isn’t that complicated.”
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Living on the streets
Daily Emerald
October 9, 2007
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