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First Of Two Forums Begins Look At Issue
What does homelessness look like in Rockbridge County?
That was the first of five questions posed at a forum on homelessness held at the Rockbridge Area Relief Association building on Sept. 24. And Buena Vista Police Chief Wayne Handley had a very straightforward answer.
“It looks like this room, because homelessness is a condition that can impact anybody during their life,” he said. “It looks like the person you’re standing behind in a Walgreens. It looks like the person you’re walking past on the sidewalk. It could be anybody.”
Handley was one of five panel members who discussed homelessness in Rockbridge County, discussing what it looks like, what various community organizations are doing to help address the issue and what factors can lead to someone becoming homeless. He was joined by Lori Ashbridge, a certified community health worker with the Rockbridge Area Health Center; Lydia Campbell, the community-based services manager for the Valley Community Services Board in Staunton; Judy Casteele, the executive di- rector for Project Horizon; and Lindsey Pérez, executive director for the Rockbridge Area Relief Association.
In more broad terms, homelessness in Rockbridge County, Lexington and Buena Vista is a difficult thing to define, because it doesn’t always look like people living on streets, pushing shopping carts and sleeping in alleyways. It includes people who are living in their cars or even people who are couch surfing.
“There’s a lot of pride in Rockbridge County. A lot of ‘We take care of our own,’” Ashbridge noted. “They don’t necessarily think of themselves as homeless, and it’s not up to me to convince them that they are.”
According to data from the Central Shenandoah Planning District’s regional housing study, an estimated 644 people in the area are at risk of housing insecurity. That number is an estimate based on trends and the population of Lexington, Buena Vista, and the county, but there currently isn’t an exact count of how many people in the area are homeless. And Campbell pointed out that not having a good count can make it difficult to address the problem through the same kind of funding sources that larger areas with a more definitive homeless population have access to.
“When we don’t have a solid count, we can’t say to the funding sources, ‘We have a problem, please give us more money to fix it,’” she said.
Casteele was able to offer some numbers from her work with Project Horizon, but the scope of the data is limited due to Project Horizon working exclusively with victims of domestic violence. Over the past five years, 96 individuals who the organization worked with face to face identified themselves as homeless. Additionally, 290 individuals said they were homeless due to domestic violence and 17 cited sexual abuse as the reason. The numbers, she said, don’t include people who called but never came in.
Domestic violence isn’t the only reason people end up homeless. Losing a job, the landlord selling the house and rent going up, even something as simple as an unexpected expense, could be enough to make people fall behind in their rent and result in their becoming homeless.
“I know what people in my field make, so it could be one extra high electric bill that’s going to put me in a crisis, or a medical bill or a car accident,” Campbell said. “It’s just not sustainable to live in a rural area and not have a car. It’s hard to get a job if you don’t have an address.”
Campbell talked about the Housing First initiative, which focuses on getting people into homes before addressing any other issues they may be dealing with, such as substance abuse. The goal is to meet the base level needs of individuals first, such as food, water and shelter, before addressing the other issues.
“You can’t move forward unless you have your base level needs met,” she said. “Why do we expect people who are sleeping outside, or sleeping in a place that’s not theirs, or a sleeping in a place that’s not safe to be sober? If I was sleeping outside or in a place that’s not safe, I would be very, very high so that I could survive it. Housing First says we don’t care if people are actively using substances. We don’t care if they have a job. We assume that once we meet their basic needs, then we can wrap them up in supports and move them on up through the chain if that’s what they want to do.”
Handley noted that a lack of a support system, such as family or friends, can increase an individual’s risk for becoming homeless following a crisis. In the absence of that kind of personal support system, organizations like the ones represented by the panel can help provide some of that support.
“They’re here to provide the support that those people might not have had in their family life or their friends,” he said. “It’s important to understand that the more support we can offer, especially once those basic needs are met, it just stands to reason that people will want to move on to whatever is next.”
Pérez noted that RARA has several programs, including rent and utility assistance, that can provide assistance to keep people who are struggling financially in their homes.
All of the panelists agreed that the issue is a complex one with no simple fix for the Rockbridge area. While building a homeless shelter in the county could be helpful to an extent – particularly in giving people who may not be able to get to the shelters in Staunton and Waynesboro a place to go – Pérez noted that the limited availability of permanent housing for people to move into in the area is an issue that also needs to be addressed to help provide a solution.
The panelists also encouraged everyone in attendance to be proactive in talking to local, state, and federal lawmakers to bring attention to the needs in the area.
“I’m a spiritual and hopeful person, but hope is not a strategy to get things done,” Handley said. “You have got to get out and ask. You’ve got to get out and talk to your state and local legislators. You’ve got to convince them this is a problem. You’ve got to make sure that the people who are writing checks and making laws know that this is something that needs to happen. You are all here, so you are all advocates.”
The final question posed to the panel was what should people do if they saw someone who they think might be homeless? Handley encouraged people to say, “Hello,” to the individual, and other panelists added similar suggestions from “Look them in the eye,” to “Shake their hand” to “Let them know they’re people.”
Pérez also encouraged people to “take yourself out of it” when assessing how to approach any such individual.
“I think a lot of people with good intentions see a person who they think is homeless – they may or may not be – and immediately it tugs at your heartstrings and you want to do something about it, so you might go and approach that person, and as we talked about earlier, they may not be ready,” she said. “They might not want help, and they might feel kind of pushed in a certain direction.”
“This work is really hard because there aren’t enough resources for everyone,” she added. “There are waitlists, especially once you get up to the SAW (Staunton-Augusta-Waynesboro) region. And so we have to put in place the most fair structure that we can where everybody can access it. There are reasons why we have guidelines – because that’s how you treat everyone equitably – and you make sure that you follow that process to get them assistance.”
A second panel on the issue of homelessness in the Rockbridge area will be held in the spring, with the focus being on trying to find more longterm solutions for the area. A date and time for that forum has not been set yet.
