No Place Like Home
By Sherry Greenfield
Photos by Erick Gibson
They sleep huddled under blankets on a cold bench in a deserted park as temperatures dip below freezing, just blocks away from Frederick’s quaint downtown shops and upscale restaurants.
Some will make their way to Degrange Street and the home of the Alan P. Linton Jr. Emergency Shelter for a warm bed, a hot chocolate, and a night out of the cold. But when day breaks and the shelter closes, the homeless are once again left to roam the streets.
“We have people living in cars and hanging out at Carroll Creek,” says Ken Allread, executive director of Advocates for Homeless Families, Inc., a nonprofit that assists homeless and atrisk families. “This is a social phenomena that is invisible to the general public. The fact is a vast majority are just trying to survive day to day.”
Frederick’s historic downtown is the crowning jewel of the city, with its mix of beautiful brownstones, posh retail, and trendy restaurants. But hidden in the shadows is a population of people who have been left behind.
When a neighbor loses a job, when a friend faces foreclosure, when a resident becomes too sick to earn a living, where can they turn? And what are we, the Frederick community, doing to lend a hand?
OUT IN THE COLD
The plight of the city’s homeless reached a fever pitch in October when temperatures unexpectedly dipped below freezing, and the city’s only overnight emergency shelter had yet to open for the season. Run by The Religious Coalition for Emergency Human Needs, the shelter is only open from November to March.
Homeless advocates scrambled, taking to social media, such as Facebook, to alert civic groups and city officials of the freeze warnings and the dire need for shelter. A short-term solution came from On Our Own of Frederick County Inc., a wellness and recovery nonprofit for people with mental health issues, which turned its North Market Street headquarters into a makeshift shelter, and Frederick City Alderman Kelly Russell, who rented rooms at the Travelodge for nine people.
When the dust settled, Rev. Brian Scott, executive director of The Religious Coalition, found himself defending the competency of his organization and their work with the cold weather shelter.
“There are gaps in services and a greater need for a year-round shelter,” he acknowledges. “But our principal goal is to prevent as many folks from going homeless as possible.”
On an average night, the 80-bed facility, which has 20 beds for women and 60 for men (children are not allowed) is about half full, Scott says. Last winter, 217 individuals stayed at the shelter between November 2012 through March 2013.
“The colder it gets the more people we see,” he says. “But we have never had to turn people away.”
It costs $700 a night to operate, with showers, hot drinks, and soups available. Drugs and alcohol are not allowed, and the shelter is run entirely by volunteers. Though it’s only open at night, the frail and elderly are welcome during the day.
Opened in 2002, the shelter is named after 26-year-old Alan P. Linton Jr., who died on the 104th floor of Tower 2 in the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001. Alan’s parents, Sharon and Pat Linton, made a donation to The Religious Coalition of $100,000 soon after the attacks.
Today, the coalition receives the bulk of its funding through private donations and grants, though the Frederick Board of County Commissioners are slated to give $22,066 to the shelter program in fiscal year 2014, according to county budget documents. That’s significantly less than the $37,002 provided in fiscal year 2013.
FACE OF THE HOMELESS
Although single adults constitute a majority of the homeless in the county, rising rents and repossessed houses are forcing many families out onto the streets.
In 2012, there were 571 homeless students in Frederick County Public Schools, according to numbers from The Religious Coalition. That number jumped to 600 in 2013—that’s about 1.5 percent of the student population— with one to three new cases reported each day.
Beacon House in Frederick, a year-long transitional shelter for men with drug and alcohol addiction, has also seen a shift in those they help.
“When it opened 20 years ago, it was mostly older men,” says Tommy Skaggs, director of development for the Frederick Rescue Mission, the agency that runs Beacon House. “But we’re seeing more younger men than in the past, and I attribute that to drug use.”
At Advocates for Homeless Families, some 100 families are waiting for help, Ken Allread says.
In 2013, Advocates housed 24 families in the 14 properties the nonprofit owns around the county. The housing is all part of a two-year program designed to help these families move into permanent housing.
“They must pay a housing fee of 30 percent of the income they make,” Allread says. “They must go to school. They must attend weekly lifestyle workshops and classes on finance, budget, health, wellness, parenting, interpersonal relationships, and socialization.”
Allread stresses that this is not a shelter program or subsidized housing.
“It’s only a stepping stone,” he says. “They must be on the path of independent living.”
Since 2004, the Religious Coalition has run another “stepping stone” program with the Exodus Project, intended for homeless adults 18 years and older who are actively looking for work and a permanent home. The Exodus Project is a 90-day program that runs from April to October to provide shelter and supportive services to help people out of homelessness.
The Frederick Rescue Mission, a Christian-centered ministry that provides food and services to the low-income, is also in the early stages of planning the county’s first emergency shelter for women and children. Unlike Heartly House, which shelters victims of domestic abuse only, “Faith House,” will be for homeless women and children regardless of their circumstances.
“Our goal now is to get single women or women with children off the streets and stabilize them, and turn them in the right direction,” Arnold Farlow, executive director, says.
It will be located downtown, with funding coming from grants and private donations. “We have churches, businesses, and individuals that want us to be here,” he says.
Farlow estimates the cost of the property at $1 million and another $1.4 million for construction.
“Homelessness is very daunting, especially for women,” Teri Kwaitek, the Rescue Mission’s outreach ministry coordinator, says. “They come here, eat lunch, and go to the library to look for jobs. But it’s difficult for them to get cleaned up in their tents and go to a job interview. It’s a hard thing to do.”
COUNTING THE HOMELESS
How widespread is the problem? Our best estimate comes from the annual “Point-in-Time Survey,” conducted nationwide by counties and homeless advocates to identify the number of people living on the streets, in shelters, and transitional housing.
Once per year, volunteers from the Frederick County Coalition for the Homeless fan out to visit areas that homeless typically gather. They spend the day speaking to the homeless and asking about their health, military status, sources of income, history of domestic violence, name, gender, and age.
The data are sent to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development per the 2005 Homelessness Housing and Assistance Act, which requires each county to conduct the study. It then goes to Congress, so lawmakers can use the information to determine what homeless services are needed and where.
The most recent count was conducted on January 30, 2013. A total of 275 homeless persons were surveyed on that day. Of those, 210 were adults and 65 were children, according to the survey.
Todd Johnson, coalition chairman, stresses that the survey is only conducted on one day and with those people they can locate. The actual number is likely higher since a vast majority of homeless people live with relatives and friends.
“This is just a snapshot on a given day,” he says.
THE 10-YEAR PLAN
The 14-member Frederick County Coalition for the Homeless has also taken on the daunting task of reducing homelessness by 2022.
“We have action steps with goals,” Johnson says, including establishing more homeless prevention programs, producing an annual report on homelessness, and providing a year- round, 24-hour shelter. “This is something new, to reduce homelessness over the next 10 years.”
But Johnson is realistic. “We know we’re not going to eliminate homelessness, but we’re going to significantly reduce it,” he says.
The coalition has already garnered close to $16,000 in federal grant money to hire a consultant to help put their plan in motion. “The consultant will look at data and then train us on how to implement this plan,” says Johnson, who also serves as assistant director of the Frederick Community Action Agency, a city-sponsored agency that provides transitional housing for homeless families.
The bad news: Once the training is complete, there is no money available to implement it.
“There has to be a funding stream,” he says. “Currently, there is no ready pool of money. We’d have to steal money from another program or shut down another program and that is not going to happen.”
ALDERMEN WEIGH IN
Katie Nash, a former candidate for Frederick City alderman in the 2013 election, has another idea. Nash wants the mayor and board of aldermen to step up and help fund a year-round shelter.
“I became aware of the need for a year-round shelter during my campaign for alderman,” Nash says. “I was very ignorant of the gap in services for the homeless in the city and there was a lot I didn’t know. But I did my research and I believe it’s the city’s function to spearhead this effort.”
Nash says she would be more than happy to lead the charge for the city.
“I’m your girl,” she says. “I think the election pushed this issue to the forefront and it was the catalyst for taking action. We can’t have a piecemeal solution. The city has to be the leader and I can be the link for them. They just need to tell me what they need…I’ve got to see movement on this.”
But the aldermen have mixed views.
Alderman Josh Bokee (D), says there is a need for a 12-month shelter, but he is not sure where the funding will come from.
Alderman Kelly Russell (D) says a year-round shelter is just one piece of the puzzle.
“There needs to be a comprehensive system of service delivery that is directed toward ending the need for a shelter, though realistically, there will always be some need,” she says.
“Minimizing sheltering needs should be the focus. If the city is to embark on a year-round shelter, it would need to be a partnership with many others to ensure that services such as mental health care, addiction services, personal financial management training, job skills training, and others can be an integral part of caring for our whole community.”
Alderman Michael O’Connor (D) sees challenges. “A year-round shelter, by itself, addresses some level of need, but it does not fix the problem,” he says. “The city’s role should be to lead the discussion on need, service delivery, service overlap, and as appropriate, support funding to address strategic solutions. I would support having that discussion in the next three to six months, so that any budget impact for fiscal year 2015 can be appropriately addressed.”
Mayor Randy McClement (R) supports a yearround shelter based on the results of the Point-In- Time Survey. However, McClement believes the Frederick County Coalition for the Homeless is the best organization to lead that discussion.
“I am interested in learning the actual cost of operating the Religious Coalition’s Linton Shelter on a 12-month basis,” he says. “The Religious Coalition has an 80-bed facility that is only fully utilized for five months of the year. I would like the committee to first examine what can be done with the current facility that already exists prior to building a new facility. Once we learn the projected operational costs, it would then be time to discuss how federal, state, local, and municipal resources could be utilized to meet the need.”
Meanwhile, the issue leaves homeless advocates scratching their heads.
“What we do is take care of you in the cold months, but we make you sleep in the park the rest of the time,” Allread, executive director of Advocates for Homeless Families, Inc., says.
Arnold Farlow of the Frederick Rescue Mission agrees.
“For the life of me I don’t understand why we don’t have an all-weather shelter,” he says. “We should all be about helping people. I think it’s time for everybody to take a hard look at what we’re doing here.”
Sherry Greenfield 