Reprinted with permission from The News of Orange
By KERI SPRENGER
Staff Writer
The man walked up with some hesitation, but apparently was hungry enough to overcome his momentary discomfort.
Volunteer Steve Lopez stood ready with a plastic bag in one hand and a paper bag in the other.
“Is it just you?” Lopez asked, his breath showing in the sub- freezing air.
The man, burrowed into the hood of his coat, thought for a moment.
“I got a girl next door ... ”
Lopez handed him two meals consisting of chicken noodle soup, a sandwich, green beans, fruit, a snack and a drink.
“Thanks. God bless,” the man said, and started to walk away.
“Hey!” yelled Ronnie Torain. “You want a Bible?”
The man came back.
“Yeah,” he said, and pocketed the book.
Lopez said 84 meals were prepared at First Baptist Church that night. When the line of people was at its end, the volunteers started to pack up the remaining food to take to those they knew needed it but hadn’t made it out to the site.
So it goes at the nightly food drop at Fairview Baptist Church and across town in Daniel Boone Village. The food, provided by various faith groups in Orange and Durham counties, is distributed Monday through Thursday between 6 and 7 p.m. to those who are hungry.
The sharing of food is just one way that faith groups and non- profits are reaching out to the homeless and hungry in Hillsborough, Orange County and across county lines.
Torain, who is the founder and executive director of Neighbor House of Hillsborough, Inc., said in the process of developing the idea of Neighbor House of Hillsborough, he has sometimes seen homeless people that have become complacent with their situations, but not because they aren’t willing to accept help.
“Some have been in a homeless situation so long that they lose all hope of ever becoming self-sufficient again. After they lose hope, then they look at homelessness as a lifestyle,” he said. “Some have expressed that the more they try, the harder it becomes.”
Torain said it is a blessing that volunteers have worked so hard to make the Food For All program a success.
“Anytime you have a vision, and a group of people step up and begin to assist you in the vision, it is really awesome,” he said.
One of those people is Pastor Brooks Graebner of St. Matthew’s Episcopal Church.
When the Food For All program was first proposed, Graebner coordinated volunteers from local churches to provide the food, prepare it and deliver it to various sites around Hillsborough.
Although there were some initial concerns about security, safety and where food should be delivered, 15 months after it began, the Food For All program has served more than 17,000 meals in Hillsborough.
“I continue to be a strong supporter of this program and the witness that it makes,” Graebner said.
He said it has been encouraging to see the way different churches have come together and embraced the idea of feeding the hungry as their common purpose. And it’s not just the people being served meals that are benefiting.
A prayer attributed to St. Francis of Assisi has a line that says, “‘for it is in giving that we receive.’”
Graebner said it is that kind of commitment by volunteers that makes this program work.
“I think it’s proved to be a very durable program,” he said. “It has justified its existence [and] been a source of real, genuine joy and heartfelt satisfaction.”
The process of creating and delivering the meals has been an eye- opener for many involved with the Food For All program.
“It makes the presence of homelessness and hunger real and palpable,” Graebner said.
Homeless situations ‘always changing’
At the Inter-Faith Council in Chapel Hill, executive director Chris Moran says he has seen it all in his 22 years of service to the homeless, the last 12 years as its director.
“You can’t take homelessness and put it in a square,” Moran said, “because the situations are always changing.”
There are those who suddenly find themselves homeless after an unforeseeable incident. Then there are others who are chronically homeless. But in the past few years, the largest number of newly homeless people he sees are women and children.
“My experience is, predominantly the women that are becoming homeless have experienced domestic assault or sexual abuse,” he said.
He has also seen an increase in the number of veterans being served. He said the Veterans Association has many resources available but people are still falling through the cracks.
“Folks aren’t being reached,” he said.
And it’s not just veterans being missed.
The Department of Housing and Urban Development doesn’t recognize homeless families. Therefore, no money is available for families, only single men, single women, or single women with children.
It is Moran’s hope that when the men’s shelter is relocated, it can be closer to the Project HomeStart women’s shelter so families can be closer even though they will still be separated. Once they are settled, they might be able to work their way out of homelessness. Or not.
“It takes a hell of a lot of resources to get out of a situation,” Moran said, adding that there are always more unsheltered people than those that are sheltered.
Tracking, finding homeless a daunting task
Tracking the homeless is a difficult task, Moran said, and can’t be narrowed down to a certain number of people in Hillsborough or the Chapel Hill/Carrboro area. Those who have been in a homeless situation for at least a year are not asked where they are from, Moran said, but there are a number of people at the shelter from the Hillsborough and northern Orange area.
“We serve the homeless from all over the county,” he said.
A recent development for IFC has been the partnering with Housing for New Hope in Durham. This partnership will be key in helping to lower the incidents of chronic homelessness, Moran said.
“We have to remember we can’t just talk about Orange County,” he said. “People cross county lines all the time.”
Governments are starting to recognize that as well. Moran said he was pleased with the Hillsborough Planning Board’s interest in 2005, when they accepted a tour of IFC when trying to craft ordinance language to allow a homeless shelter within town limits.
“They’re trying to find the right way to make this happen,” Moran said. “They were very sensitive and open to suggestions.”
It is that sort of commitment that will be needed for the 10-year plans to work in all the counties, said Stan Holt, the Triangle United Way’s Homelessness Specialist. Holt spent more than 10 years working with the transitional housing program in the city of Durham prior to working with the Triangle United Way.
The United Way’s goal in the project of ending homelessness is to help people in each county work together on sharing ideas. They also help fund each county’s 10-year plan and point out innovative ways that the different counties are tackling the issue.
“Our perspective at the Triangle United Way is that homelessness is a regional problem,” Holt said. “This whole sharing of best practices is crucial to this thing.”
Though each county may implement their 10-year plans differently, the overall goal of each county’s plan will help eliminate chronic homelessness in conjunction with other counties so the homeless people aren’t just moving from one county to the next.
Each county has it’s own uniqueness in politics and services available, and each has its own nuances. But that’s not so much a stumbling block as it is an opportunity.
“I think you can honor [the differences] but still create a collective vision,” Holt said. Part of that is that governments are involved in a way they haven’t been before.
“For the first time in the 10 to 11 years I have been doing this work, governments are at the table” and creating strategies for dealing with homelessness, he said.
“Our goal is that they see the importance of that and invest in those strategies.”
Federally, the recognition is also there, Holt said. While other programs are being cut across the board for federal funding, more money is being invested in eliminating taking care of the homeless.
“Part of it is there’s a greater awareness and understanding,” Holt said.
He believes homelessness can be ended in the sense that there won’t be chronically homeless people. There will always be the need for temporary shelter, he said.
“The challenge has been that people have fallen on the streets and got stuck in that place,” he said.
Some people say the homeless choose to be that way, but after more than 10 years entrenched in the issue, Holt doesn’t believe that.
“It’s not about choosing to be homeless; it’s about choosing to not go into a shelter with stringent rules,” he said. Those who wouldn’t want to go into the shelter could be a person with a drug or alcohol abuse problem. They spend time at the hospital and in jail because of their problems. Many times, the abuse is brought on by mental illness, he said.
“Does that really exclude them from having a safe roof over their heads?” Holt asked.
Creating those roofs is a challenge but can sometimes be done on a temporary basis, says The Rev. Sharon Freeland, executive director at Orange Congregations in Mission, a partner of the Triangle United Way.
On occasion, OCIM also provides some rental deposits to help people, as well as providing some temporary housing at hotels for families and individuals.
But what it boils down to is money. There are nearly 50 congregations involved in the support of OCIM, and the thrift shop sales help raise money as well but there is always a need for more. The Meals on Wheels program and the Food Pantry are just two of the many programs for which OCIM needs funding.
The Food Pantry served 5,209 individuals last year, Freeland said. Of those 5,209, 2,225 were children. While there can be no doubt as to how many people are hungry in the county, there is also a homeless population that OCIM has assisted. In 2006, a total of 13 people identified themselves as homeless to workers at OCIM.
“Certainly, the homeless situation is real,” she said.
What to do if the money isn’t there
OCIM’s overall operating budget for 2007 is $572,871 — $166,900 of which is designated for Samaritan Relief. That amount is down nine percent from the previous year, even though Freeland expects they will serve even more people this coming year. The Samaritan Relief program provides help for people on referrals from the Department of Social Services, the health department, both law enforcement departments in this area, the Red Cross, Orange County Schools and OPC/Caring Family Network.
“The one thing we don’t ever want to do is cut our services,” she said.
For OCIM employees, that means no raises again this year. But Freeland does not lament that fact in the face of what they can do with the money instead.
“We’re doing alright,” she said. “We’re holding on.”
Community, individuals continue efforts
Torain said Neighbor House of Hillsborough, Inc. has one committee working to locate and submit grant applications and one working on seeking a building to house the shelter. In the process of searching for the homeless, Torain has changed his own view on it.
“I am less judgmental now than when I first started,” he said.
In hearing about those who are unable to find jobs that will pay enough money to afford housing, or those who have made mistakes in the past, such as not paying their rent or a committing crimes. Torain knows he is blessed in what he has and wants to do anything he can to help others.
“I often say any one of them could have been me.”
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