Organizers, officials say homeless forum was productive

WASHINGTON — Lighthouse Center personnel, area organizations and local government officials hosted a forum on homelessness in Washington’s downtown area last week. Dozens of community members packed into the Washington Public Library for the 2-hour affair.

“We decided it was important for to give those in the downtown community a chance to come and voice your concerns,” Washington Police Chief Jim Lester said. “We’re here to learn about homelessness in Washington … and hopefully we can all brainstorm together.”

Organizers said they knew there were no easy fixes on the complicated issue. Still, they felt the forum went well.

“It was more positive than I was fearing, because I was afraid we were going to get a lot of people who were very, very angry,” Main Street Washington Executive Director Sarah Grunewaldt said. “It was very positive, it was solution-oriented … There are people who feel unsafe in our community, they have every right to, but I think the discussion evolved in a positive manner.”

Safety is main concern

Residents at the meeting said they were primarily worried about personal safety. A handful said they’d had scary experiences with people who lacked social connections.

“We’ve had business owners who’ve been followed,” Grunewaldt said. “We’ve had teenage staffers followed and catcalled all the way from a motor bank back to the main bank branch, and that made them uncomfortable … we have had business owners teaching classes at night and they’ve had people peaking in windows, people stalking.”

Staff at Kat’s Grain said they were repeatedly harassed and eventually threatened by a homeless man who eventually brandished a knife.

“I have children in the community, this is scary, and I’m not big,” one employee said. “You’re constantly watching behind your back.”

Others who had not had such run-ins said they were worried it was a matter of time.

“Once it gets dark, I do not exit my apartment,” said Jeanie Davis, a longtime resident of the downtown area. “I do not go out on the street unless there’s somebody I know … It’s scary.”

Still, many stressed that while problems with harassment and crime sometimes correlated with unhoused populations, they were not inherent.

“Today is not an anti-Lighthouse Day, I don’t think that’s the problem,” said Deana DeLong, who co-owns a salon in Washington. “I think it’s the others that create havoc, … people who don’t want help, people that do get busted in town.”

Misinformation, mental health blamed as major causes

Lighthouse Center staff replied to concerns that their service was attracting homeless populations to the community, rather than reducing its prominence.

Darren Brown, the director of Tribulation and Trust Ministry, a faith-based organization that operates the Lighthouse Center, said most of its residents were native to the Washington area, an intentional decision by the group.

“We have had people come from out of county, we usually ask them what their tie is to Washington County,” he said. “I have personally transported people to Des Moines, I have taken them to the Quad Cities, I have paid to put them on a bus to get them places, because they’re not from here and there’s no reason for them to have roots here, and we don’t have the public transportation and things like that to help them in their need.”

While the center is open to all, organizers say it’s not for everyone. The group is largely faith-based, and sets rules residents have to follow or face removal.

Those rules include staying out of the shelter during daytime hours, drug tests, chores, and a day-to-day structure that many homeless people struggle to adapt to.

"Some of these people that you’re dealing with have come to the shelter, and they have broke the rules, and we have asked them to leave,“ Brown said.

However, some don’t have the time or information to check the Lighthouse Center’s rules before arriving in town. Others are even brought in by out-of-county law enforcement agencies, or directed by others who don’t realize the strictness of the rules.

“Guys working nights will say, ‘We saw a squad car from another county roll into town and stop by the shelter,’” Chief Jim Lester said. “They get there, and they may sleep for a while, but they don’t like the rules so they’re not there anymore, but they don’t want to go anywhere else … we can’t force them to get in our car.”

Even for those who do recognize the magnitude of the shelter’s rules, the change is incredibly challenging.

“Building your life is not something that happens overnight,” said Stevie Young, a formerly homeless person who now works for a Choices drop-in center. “We need to be supportive … just because somebody doesn’t look like us, we need to be kind.”

Another causative factor is often mental health and struggles with substance abuse, both of which can make it hard for some people to hold a steady job and form positive connections. Iowa’s support system is especially flawed, according to Brown.

“The team in Des Moines decided to take out mental health … and what we’re seeing today in society is the long term effect of that closure,” he said. “These people don’t have the help that they normally once got, and it snowballs, it gets worse.”

Washington County Mental Health and Disability Services Coordinator Bobbie Wulf said she agreed.

“At this point in time we have more providers in mental health than we’ve ever had, but they’re still not enough.” she said. “There is a shortage of inpatient beds throughout the state of Iowa … if we don’t have inpatient beds, we’re forced to try to treat them in the community.”

In severe cases, Brown said the Lighthouse Center wasn’t able to help people who were unwilling or unable to get care. The center can’t force anyone to seek medical treatment.

“We have people that are trying to get their lives, and if we go with our services and open it up and allow these other people that aren’t doing anything, if we allow them to come in and just be crazy, then that destroys the work for the people that we are helping,” he said. “It hurts, because you don’t want to do it. You watch people go out and you want to help them, but you can’t.”

Solutions are harder to pin down

Homelessness is a complicated problem, born from a web of root causes. While no magic solution exists, many at the forum saw a need for increased support from the community.

“People who cut you off because they needed to, they put boundaries, but then you’re like, alone,” said Erin Kaye, a pastor at United Presbyterian Church. “That probably didn’t help … it’s about community.”

Kaye said she also worried about an “us-them” mentality in discussions about homelessness.

“I’m starting to hear some ‘They’ language, and I think we have to be cautious of that,” she said. “People who are here, they’re here. The people who are here are part of this community, so we need to include them in that way.”

Resident Jim Gorham said he agreed.

“We’ve got a lot of people around here that don’t look like the rest of us, don’t act like the rest of us, maybe,” he said. “We have to have a better attitude about how we treat people.”

The “how” question is where things get tricky. It’s one thing to acknowledge the need for social connections. It’s another to facilitate those needs.

“I work with a lot of kids with a lot of needs … one thing that our school has really tried since last year is allowing that connection,” said Cailee Wenger, a choir teacher in Washington. “It’s making a huge difference, we know these kids, it’s getting really cool. I’m hoping we’re able to do that with adults. We have these awesome care centers, we have these resources, but do we have daytime programming? Do we have ways for adults to get to know people that aren’t like us?”

Others encouraged residents to lobby for more mental health support at the state level.

“The community needs to talk to their legislators, they need to talk about bed shortages that are in Iowa for the mental health inpatient psychiatric units, and I think we also need to advocate for wages people in the mental health field,” Bobbie Wulf said. “There are staff who do direct care with these patients that are getting $10, $12 an hour. If you’re going to talk about it with legislators, I think those would be great points to make.”

Comments: Kalen.McCain@southeastiowaunion.com