Seeking the lost

Volunteers from throughout Vernon County, including Tricia Bridgewater, Shaun Williams, Julie Eador, Lisa Whitaker, and others listen as Nevada Housing Authority Carol Branham goes over safety rules, just prior to a field homeless count conducted July 15. --Lynn A. Wade/Daily Mail

*Area volunteers take steps to combat homelessness.*

"They feel invisible."

Tricia Bridgewater shared the insight she'd seen on a documentary about homeless people as she prepared to join other teams in an effort to tally the number of people without homes in Vernon County at a given time. But they aren't invisible. They count. That's the main reason volunteers set out to count them.

"That's why we're out here, to let them know what resources are out there for them," said Nevada Housing Authority director Carol Branham, who organized the counting effort as part of a statewide assessment of how many homeless people are out there, and what services are needed for them.

People without housing or living in substandard conditions are out there. There's a segment of the community who at best have a transient housing situation -- going from couch to couch, staying temporarily with first one friend, then another. Others take shelter in abandoned buildings or live in their vehicles. Nevada Police Lt. Jens Barclay estimates that one in three of the people he interviews can't provide an address.

In Vernon County, homeless people might be anyone -- from the grandma on a fixed income who can no longer keep up her house to the young parents who fell on hard times, Branham noted.

Volunteer Lisa Whitaker said that in Sheldon, the homeless population consists of teenagers kicked out of their homes, more often than not. Whitaker said that the teens, usually ages 15 to 17, are either too young to work or have no transportation or both.

"They aren't just too young to be able to support themselves. They're not old enough to sign a contract, so they can't get a place of their own, even if they had the money. They sleep in the park. They go from couch to couch. It boggles my mind, how people can just kick out their own children like that," Whitaker said.

Two volunteers from Vernon County Drug Court, Julie Eador and Shaun Williams, said there's a person they know through the program who's living with his girlfriend and baby, plus 13 other people. There's another person Williams told of, whose mobile home burned a year ago. The man now simply lives in an abandoned building, in a tent, in a park -- wherever he can find a place.

"It's something that could happen to lots of people, at any time," said counselor Tricia Bridgewater, homeless count volunteer.

Many are in a precarious position that could change with a layoff, or an injury or illness. "People are living paycheck-to-paycheck. One crisis can uproot a family," Bridgewater said.

Workers at Nevada Housing Authority come into contact with homeless people regularly. Branham said, "We have them every week." This week, a couple living in a van with their two children came to the offices.

Often, medical offices and hospitals come into contact with people in crisis as well. These offices, too, will participate in the counting process, reporting anyone who indicated such a need to them during a visit on Tuesday or Wednesday.

"Those services providers are where we get much of our information," Branham said.

Volunteers participating in the counting event, hope that by talking more openly about homelessness, more people will become aware of the resources available to them. More people will also become aware of the problems faced by the community, enabling them to address them more effectively.

Information gleaned in the official count will be used by the Department of Housing and Urban Development and by the state for specific programs. Local service organizations also will use the information gathered to try to tailor services more closely to local folks in need.

"One of the things that we will do with this information, locally, is use it to identify what we need, and for grant applications, things like that," Branham said.

In fact, a similar homeless count conducted in January resulted in a handful of families finding homes, Branham said.

Locally, preparation for and information from homeless counts also has led groups -- first two students, Molly Ferree and Megan Stacy, then women's groups such as the Hopes and Women Like Us -- to prepare emergency kits filled with some vital items to be given to people in crisis in Nevada and Vernon County. The kits include personal hygiene items and sometimes baby items and more.

"We give these to people we see that might need them; people without homes or nearly homeless. This started out as a Nevada project, but then it branched out," Branham said. Kits, contained in duffle bags, are kept at a variety of local service agencies, to be distributed as needed.

It's just one of the ways local people are banding together, Branham said, crediting the people of Vernon County with a generous capacity for helping others.

"We have so many good, care-giving people," she said.