Helping homeless people

October 29, 2020

Homeless people continue to be on the streets in downtown Salina, and there are many people who want to help by responding to their needs when possible and helping them to find the resources they need.

Cassie Streit has been a business owner downtown for five years. She runs Streit Sandblasting and Stickit Vinyl Graphics at 114 S. Santa Fe. She is a board member of Salina Downtown Inc. and is bringing together agencies and individuals who want to improve coordination and communications in order to effectively deal with and help those people who might not have a home and may be hungry.

“I know there is sometimes an attitude that homeless people are not pretty, are not clean, but if we can flip that ‘not in my backyard’ attitude, maybe we can help more people,” Streit said.

On a recent cold morning, 11 people from local agencies met at the Chamber of Commerce Annex to share information and keep working together to help people in need. Agencies included Ashby House, Kansas Works, Catholic Charities, Salina Grace shelter, Salina Downtown Inc., Salina Police Department, Kansas Dept. of Children and Families and the Salina Rescue Mission.

Everyone present acknowledged that this was not a new issue and that there will always be people who need help and that was what they were there to do.

“If they identify as homeless, it’s our job as Christians to help them,” said Claudette Humphrey, of Catholic Charities.

“Last night, we had 60 men stay at the mission,” said Chad Young, executive director of the Salina Rescue Mission.

The Ashby House had about 47 residents at its three programs. Salina Grace is not yet open for the winter season. And, the experienced social service professionals present estimated that there could easily be another 30-40 homeless people in Salina. Some sleep outside, sometimes by choice. Others couch-surf. Others live in vehicles.

Salina has many resources to assist residents and transients. The challenges include reaching people, listening to and understanding their needs and choices, not duplicating services and finding funding to provide assistance.https://d5a36bd22ae9db8732f1d9e81ffc3317.safeframe.googlesyndication.com/safeframe/1-0-37/html/container.html

“How can we help navigate that?” asked Penny Bettles, executive director of Salina Downtown Inc. Bettles works with downtown property owners, merchants and the increased number of residents in the newly remodeled downtown. She communicates with homeless or unemployed people who congregate there.

Streit’s group is working on a flow chart to coordinate services. They also want to make more people aware of the Community Resource Guide, which lists specific solutions to needs, such as housing, showers, food, clothing and safety.

“Our agencies in Salina do a really good job of working together,” Chad Young said.

Many people know and share the information that shelter can be found at the Salina Rescue Mission and Ashby House. Lunch can be found at Christ Cathedral. The Salvation Army feeds people. The Emergency Aid Food Bank and Catholic Charities are among agencies that provide food for the hungry. Catholic Charities brings a van to do street outreach on Mondays and the Rescue Mission and Central Kansas Mental Health are on the streets on Thursday.

“Ashby House is collaborating with several area churches with a Love Salina Fund that is used to provide assistance with rent and utilities,” Andy Houltberg said. Agencies also are seeing an uptick in evictions because of COVID-19.

Mental health issues continue to be a major factor in homelessness.

“They don’t keep mentally ill patients in hospitals very long and they expect communities to work with them,” Houltberg said. “When the medicine runs out, people self-medicate and that can develop the dual issue of unstable mental health combined with alcoholism or drug use.”

The group will continue to meet on a monthly basis to update their resource guide, share information on services and brainstorm solutions for issues related to homelessness.

“It’s not illegal to be homeless,” Streit said. “No one plans for the homeless to be part of the landscape, but they are and we want to help.”

Read more here: https://www.leavenworthtimes.com/news/20201029/holm-auto-good-news-helping-homeless-people

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