Sheltering the Many
Since 1924, City Union Mission has provided emergency services of all kinds to the indigent
It's a pretty safe bet to say that most Ingram's readers have never been homeless. It's probably equally safe to say that most of us don't really believe, "There but for the grace of God (or whatever or whomever) go I" as we speed past the tattered guy with a badly printed sign. We probably figure if we give him money, it will just go for booze, or worse.
Now, that could be true. But it also could be the furthest from the truth--so which do you believe? In Kansas City, there are some startling facts and statistics which might shake some of us out of our warm and comfy lethargy.
The oldest and largest homeless shelter in Kansas City is the City Union Mission. Since 1924, it has provided emergency services of all kinds to the temporarily (or permanently) indigent. Through November of 2002, it reported a 17 percent increase of people in their shelters, alone. This is not the entire picture of course, because it does not include those who needed shelter but none was available throughout the metropolitan area and it does not include the 'hidden homeless"--those who are staying "temporarily" with friends or relatives.
Sandy Baldwin, Director of Community Relations at the Mission says the reasons for the increase are complex. Many of those needing their services are in service industries and have been laid off. If you lose your job, you must be jobless for 30 days before you are eligible for assistance. "We are seeing many new clients--people with large families who never thought they would need this kind of help," she says. More buildings have been condemned, leaving paid-up renters without additional resources.
The Salvation Army reports a similar upswing, with the demand for shelter for the homeless and emergency services at an all time high--and 60 percent of the people there are those they've not seen before. Their new Johnson County Family Lodge, the only shelter of its kind in Johnson County, is a 44-bed facility in Olathe offering programming in life skills while the residents work to become independent.
Kansas City's 635 beds (in the seven family and four men's shelters approved by the Homeless Coalition) situation reflects the national scene. Here, a 25 percent increase in requests for emergency shelter and a 3 percent decrease in shelter beds exists. Fully 56 percent of the need was unmet last year. The National Law Center for Homelessness and Poverty reports that over three million men, women, and children were homeless over the past year--about 30 percent of them chronically and the others temporarily. The numbers have increased about 22 percent for shelter requests with 52 percent of those requests going unmet in 2001. About one-third of people making the requests were never homeless before this year.
On top of the three million who were homeless or marginally homeless, the report continues, there are an additional five million poor people who spend over half of their incomes on housing, leaving them on the verge of homelessness. A missed paycheck, a health crisis, or an unpaid bill can easily push poor families over the edge into homelessness.
So who are the homeless? According to a U.S. Conference of Mayors report, it's a diverse population: 20 percent work; 22 percent are mentally disabled; 11 percent are veterans; 34 percent are drug or alcohol dependent. Many of the newly homeless are "camping out" with friends or relatives-- impossible to relate as statistics.
And that's part of the problem, also. Too often, we don't even think of these people as anything but statistics, because we are not among them. Even imagining it is too difficult for us. But just so you know--when you look up "Homeless Shelters" in the yellow pages and are directed to "Crisis Intervention Services," you can find the number for the "Crisis Hot Line." Provided by City Union Mission, that's where you'd have to start.