Homeless camp closure brings mixed results, new energy to service providers

NWA Arkansas Democrat-Gazette/DAVID GOTTSCHALK Registered clients are now able stay overnight in their vehicle in a designated area at the 7 Hills Homeless Center in Fayetteville. The center, with the help of other organizations, said they have turned a corner reducing the homeless population in that area.
NWA Arkansas Democrat-Gazette/DAVID GOTTSCHALK Registered clients are now able stay overnight in their vehicle in a designated area at the 7 Hills Homeless Center in Fayetteville. The center, with the help of other organizations, said they have turned a corner reducing the homeless population in that area.

FAYETTEVILLE -- A camp of about 100 homeless people, likely the largest in the region, is gone. The people are still around, and the work to house them and more than 1,000 others continues, service groups and campers said.

The University of Arkansas Police Department last Thursday evicted the campers from university-owned land near 19th Street in South Fayetteville, saying the camps were unsafe.

Groups seek donations

Several groups, including those listed below, are helping the homeless in south Fayetteville find housing and other services. They have asked the public for volunteers and other donations.

Salvation Army

219 W. 15th St.

Contact: (479) 521-2151 or salvationarmyaok.or…. Money donations are accepted online. The group has also asked for donated food, plates and cutlery, and cleaning and personal hygiene products.

7 Hills Homeless Center day center

1832 S. School Ave.

Contact: (479) 966-4378 or 7hillscenter.org. Money donations are accepted online.

Genesis Church

205 Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. Contact: (479) 442-1827 or centraltolife.com/g…. Money donations are accepted online.

Source: Staff report

The clearing and a synchronized response from a coalition of service providers made a dent in homelessness at least in that part of the city, those groups say: 40 or so campers are staying at the Fayetteville Salvation Army shelter overnight, part of a temporary expansion. Several more found housing or a place to sleep through the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, the 7 Hills Homeless Center and elsewhere.

"It gives you a chance to catch your breath," said Angela Belford, board chairwoman for the Northwest Arkansas Continuum of Care, the service provider coalition. People who had been in the camp so long they had lost hope of getting housing are now talking face-to-face with groups that may be able to help, she said.

A few dozen campers haven't found shelter and have simply moved to other out-of-the-way spots around the city, several campers and nonprofit workers said. Some have pets they can't yet take to Salvation Army, for instance, or have other reasons for staying outdoors.

The camp closure has given the entire community new energy to take action, Belford said, because it shows how immediate the homelessness issue is and how quickly the area can do something about it. The time pressure is still on: Salvation Army's extra beds will be around for only about six months, during which the people staying there can tap the Continuum's services.

The Continuum coordinates its members' work and connects people experiencing or near homelessness with the nonprofit organizations that can help with their particular needs. Several groups spent recent weeks focused specifically on the campers, holding a weeklong resource fair last month for rent assistance, personal documents, food and other services.

"In the trauma and upheaval and chaos, I think something really good not only will come but is already coming out of it," said Kevin Fitzpatrick, a UA sociology professor who has studied the homeless for years. "It created new opportunity."

There and back again

The south Fayetteville camp was a small piece of the region's homelessness. The Continuum's list of named clients last week included more than 1,300 people in this corner of the state who were staying in a temporary shelter or on the streets, at least as of the last time they checked in with a social worker or other provider. Area surveys have found many more doubling up with friends or family.

Major injuries or illness, loss of a job or relationship, substance abuse and other factors can leave people homeless, University of Arkansas research has found. Service groups say some of the people affected can reestablish themselves fairly quickly with a little help, but others have been homeless for years or have disabling conditions that need more intensive aid.

The first campers pitched their tents near 19th Street about three years ago when 7 Hills relocated its day center nearby on South School Avenue, said Solomon Burchfield, 7 Hills operations director.

More and more came as other encampments around the south side of town were cleared. 19th Street gave quick access to the day center's showers, meals, supplies, internet and phone access and case management. But Burchfield said big encampments anywhere also bring the chance for sanitation problems and crime, including when police said a man was beaten to death.

"I think we're going to see a reversal of that, that people will spread back out," he said.

Fred Eggestein, a former camper now sleeping at the Salvation Army, said the city should have cared about the camp and the people in it long ago, such as when heavy rainfall washed some of it away in early 2017.

"They didn't give a s--- back then," he said at the 7 Hills center, much of his face hidden by a bushy beard and full head of hair. Despite his frustration, he said he's been talking with 7 Hills about potential ways to get a place of his own.

Tim Brandt said he was at the camp until several months ago, when he got tired of his tent and clothes getting stolen.

He recently found housing through a partnership of the Veterans Affairs and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and hopes the VA can get him surgery on his injured foot so he can go back to work as a heavy equipment operator. Another veteran friend who left the camp because of its closure found housing through the same program.

"It's a good thing, because it's a pig sty," he said of the camp, adding the Continuum members' work isn't finished. "They just need to get the ones who want to be out of the timber."

Needs and plans

The Salvation Army needs food items of all kinds to keep up with its boosted traffic, social services director Greg Chambers told members of the Continuum at its regular meeting Wednesday. He added construction on a kennel for at least 10 pets could start this week.

"Dinner has been a challenge -- that's been bigger than anything," Chambers said. "Any kind of kitchen supply, we need it."

Daily life at the day center, meanwhile, carries on much as it has for years, Burchfield said. Clients filed in for cooked rice and potatoes, to ask for over-the-counter medications like ibuprofen or to check if they have mail -- many use the day center as their address for jobs and government agencies. One man got a cup of water for his puppy, which sprawled on the floor in front of a fan.

The Continuum of Care also continues its work, preparing annual grant requests to HUD and its annual, 24-hour homelessness survey in January.

Some members are exploring the idea of getting into real estate and building the Continuum's own housing in an attempt to get at the root of homelessness: housing costs.

Serve NWA, a nonprofit Continuum member, reached an agreement Friday with the university to buy about 5 acres of the former campground to build 20 wooden microshelters for those who need them. Fitzpatrick is a board member for the nonprofit group and said the deal should close this month. Then engineering work and the city approval process will begin.

The shelters are meant to be temporary havens for campers, Fitzpatrick said, giving them a roof and stable living situation, providing access to case management and getting them used to home life.

Another developer is buying 52 adjacent acres from the university. Fitzpatrick declined to identify the developer but said Serve NWA has been in discussion about the project for months. If everything comes together the way he hopes, the developer could build small, low-cost homes next door to the shelters and Serve NWA's clients could move into when they're ready.

He said the whole project would essentially give former campers a permanent off-ramp from life in the woods.

Other Continuum members at the coalition's meeting this month spoke excitedly about holding a rerun of the weeklong resource fair at a VA-organized event in October at Fayetteville's Central United Methodist Church, or perhaps making the fair permanent in city-owned office space near the middle of town.

Belford said she had no doubt the Continuum can house the 40 or so people at the Salvation Army. They've found homes for 250 people from the Continuum list since early this year, according to the latest count from Continuum board secretary Cari Bogulski.

NW News on 09/17/2018

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