Editor’s note: The Glouster woman identified in this story is anonymous due to a possible custody battle over her unborn child.
During the early months of 2012, a 28-year-old Glouster mom is uninsured, unemployed, pregnant and terrified of the possibility that she might become homeless months before her fifth child is born.
“We need help,” she said. “Being homeless means you’re still struggling with finding work, only it makes it worse.”
Today, a two-story dwelling on Athens’ Central Avenue serves as the only homeless shelter in Athens and eight surrounding counties. Three decades ago, Good Works, Inc., established the Timothy House as an emergency shelter to take Southeast Ohio’s homeless off the streets and into a home where they could have a bed and hot meal.
“Shelters are expensive to run,” said Kelly Cooke of the Athens County Housing Coalition. “It’s hard to put a number on how many homeless people we have in our county and the money we get is based on need, but that’s hard when we can’t show our need.”
In Ohio, Cooke said emergency housing is discouraged. It isn’t as simple as strolling into a shelter anymore, she said, where administrators would then detect their residents’ mental illnesses or addictions.
Today, Ohio follows the “Housing First” model, meaning the government attempts to stabilize homeless in apartments before assessing their conditions.
On the night of the Athens County Housing Coalition’s point-in-time report last January, 72 people were homeless in the county and 35 were considered unsheltered — sleeping in cars, campers and on the street.
The 58 percent increase in last year’s tally of the homeless caused the Timothy House to turn away nearly 150 people seeking shelter in the first 10 months of 2011 because of shortage of space. About 60 of those denied were children.
“In rural communities, we believe the face of homelessness looks different than it does in cities,” said Terri Gillespie, director of homeless prevention services at Integrated Services of Appalachian Ohio. “In Appalachia, there are large extended families that have to double up in homes, campers and sheds. They don’t have a permanent place to live, so they stay in some makeshift shelter.”
In June, the soon-to-be mother of five will face an expiring lease on the three-bedroom apartment where she lives alone since losing custody of her four boys to her parents. If it weren’t for the generosity of her boyfriend’s parents, she may have been facing a life on the street with a newborn baby.
“I will have to move in with my boyfriend and I hate that,” she said. “I don’t like others to help me when I can’t help them.”
Despite efforts to build more shelters in the area, Athens City neighborhoods are still disapproving of the possibility of building another shelter, leaving many Southeast Ohioans without meals, showers or beds to sleep in.
“Many people in rural areas don’t want to admit that we have homeless people nearby,” Cooke said.
It costs about $180,000 a year to operate the 24-hour West End establishment, which dishes out 20,000 meals and puts a roof over 200 heads a year. Only $60,000 of its funding comes from a grant, while the rest comes primarily from donations and fundraisers.
“I think the fact that the Timothy House is turning away as many people as they can take indicates that [Athens] doesn’t have the resources to take care of the homeless and that presents a danger,” Cooke said. “Many people are suffering.”
oy311909@ohiou.edu
