( Just spoke with Bert Rosen at Knox Area Rescue Ministries: Their overnight total population was 392- a little lower. — Crossroads served 219 people- and it’s designed for 125 maximum per day. — And KARM served 1,100 meals yesterday .)
I wonder if the “ten year plan” to end homelessness in Knoxville was ever possible. There are those who are intractably homeless, and those who choose that lifestyle rather than being clean or sober.
There are people who have mental illnesses, some undiagnosed, some diagnosed where the patient will not take the meds, and some who fall into a category for which I have no name. Others are people I call “takers” who live off others one way or the other.
But there’s another category, too:
Like the mother and children who have no home because of domestic fighting, abuse, or their spouse incarcerated and not providing a living. Or the man who has lost his job, his home, and a big part of his dignity. Or the person who is fighting their personal demons, and working to regain employment, and maybe even their family.
It’s not an issue that we will decide here.
I know that some of the homeless represent the lazy, and the shiftless. The tormented…
You know…
The wretch.
Like me.
The one in that song.
#1 by Robert Finley on February 4, 2010 - 9:17 AM
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I like where you ended up, Dave, with your empathy extended to the people way out on the margins. There are people who just want to be parasites, but I think they’re a lot fewer of them than we like to think.
Those folks out there who have mental illness and aren’t yet treating it, they’ll have a much better shot at success once they can stabilize their lives in secure and safe housing. The woman who had to grab her kids and flee a violent situation at home? Same thing. The economic refugees you mention? Affordable housing and the right help is what will most help them get back on their feet.
The Ten-Year Plan to End Chronic Homelessness has made great forward progress, with over 230 formerly chronically homeless people housed over the last 18 months, case managers reducing evictions from over 60 per year to zero in four of our public housing developments over the last year, unprecedented cooperation between agencies serving the homeless, and new housing development underway.
The Ten-Year Plan is working.
We’ve learned a lot since the Plan began implementation, and one of the most important lessons is that we need to expand our scope to help not just the chronically homeless. We want to help everyone who falls into homelessness in our community, for whatever reason, to get into the appropriate kind of housing as rapidly as possible. Nobody should be homeless in our community. Everyone should be able to find the road home.
Thanks for recognizing the truth, that homelessness happens for a lot of different reasons, and it can happen to anyone. Let’s continue to work to put an end to it.
Robert Finley
#2 by Bethany Foulk Leatherwood on February 7, 2010 - 9:26 PM
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As someone who works with people who live at both KARM and the Salvation Army on a daily basis, there are many times I say, “There but for the grace of God go I.” Few know that KARM also provides vocational training for their residents and has one of the few mental health “halfway houses” in the area. Due to my career choice, and maybe some of my father’s raising I can be cyncial. But I can also be compasionate, once again due to both of my parent’s influence. KARM and The Salvation Army both provide an invaluable resource to our community and the people who really want the help.