Smaller crowd at second homeless forum

WASHINGTON — A second homeless forum in Washington the night of Oct. 3 brought a smaller crowd and shorter discussion than the similar event held the afternoon of Aug. 22. The event was intended to draw members of the public who could not make the August meeting due to work obligations.

Overall, the evening event at the UP Church focused on the numerous causes for homelessness, which experts say has grown in Washington since 2016.

“Around 2018 or 19, we started looking at … a shelter, we needed something,” said Jill Boileau, coordinator for the Choices drop-in center, which often works with unhoused people. “It was horrible, those months of November, December, January, February. Leaving Choices on a Friday night and locking the door and saying, ‘I’m sorry, I’ll see you Monday.’”

Some points of discussion were echoed from the August forum. Advocates say mental health problems are the main issue for many homeless people, as they struggle to remain in the work force; Virtually all speakers agreed that mental health workers weren’t paid enough, and that state support for mental health was too low; While the shelter has rules to prevent incidents, they have to find balance between accountability and giving second chances.

Steve Gault, a member of the Washington City Council who has been vocal about homelessness in Washington, spoke at the meeting. He said he blamed the Lighthouse Center for disruptive incidents attributed to homeless people in town.

“You have clients that, from 8-4, you’re not letting them in the shelter,” Gault said. “You’re turning them out onto Washington. You’re making the citizens of Washington your babysitter, is the way I feel about it. I’ve had people in my ward, I’ve have other people complain because they like to go panhandling in front of their stores.”

Darren Brown, director of Tribulation and Trust Ministry which operates the Lighthouse Center, said he disagreed with Gault’s premise.

“I’m not babysitting people, they’re human beings, they have rights, they’re citizens and they’re adults,” Brown said. “If they want to go somewhere, I can’t keep them from going anywhere … I can’t keep them from panhandling, I try to. They panhandle me.”

Brown said the center had neither the funds for daytime staff nor the rehabilitative programming in place to keep the center open during the day.

Boileau said homeless people involved in daytime disruptions weren’t necessarily the same people at the Lighthouse Center.

“I think people do automatically assume that it has to do with the shelter when it doesn’t always,” she said. “A lot of backlash goes to the shelter because they’re homeless, but we can’t force someone to go there.”

Gault went on to say he worried the Lighthouse Center worsened the problem by attracting unhoused people to the community.

“He is responsible for them people being here, whether he wants to admit it or not,” Gault said of Brown at a City Council meeting the following night. “They’re coming to his shelter, and if he is opening his doors and forcing them out, he is forcing the problems onto Washington, Iowa. And it needs to stop.”

Others, however, said the shelter was essential in their own recoveries.

“I’ve been back on my feet for two years now, with my own place, I’m getting close to being able to buy a house,” said Stevie Nowell, who shared her own success story from the Lighthouse Center. “What I really want to focus on is, without having those opportunities, I wouldn’t be here.”

While many in the community have voiced problems, solutions remain difficult, as they did after the last forum.

“It’s really easy to say, ‘Why isn’t Darren fixing it, why isn’t Jill fixing it?’” said United Presbyterian Church Pastor Erin Kaye. “The puzzle is a whole lot bigger than two pieces … it’s a much more multifaceted problem than one homeless shelter and one drop-in center going to fix everything.”

Brown said the issue stemmed from a “culture problem” linked to a lack of volunteerism.

“We’ve got to stick together as a community,” he said. “Within our community, there’s no reason for anybody to not have a place to stay and there’s no reason for anybody to be hungry unless they choose it.”

Gault said the shelter should consider a day labor program.

“If you advertise in the paper that you have day labor, if they want to work, I’m sure there’s places that they can,” he said. “Idle hands are the devil’s workshop. We need some sort of day labor thing so we can keep them busy.”

Washington County Public Health Director Emily Tokheim said leaders involved in the forums, both through government offices and organizations, would continue looking for ways to address homelessness.

“A lot of what we’ve heard is that there’s a need for community-driven resources and support and solutions,” she said. “They are going to take so much more than public health, or the police department, or the mental health drop-in center. It’s going to take all of us working together to get that done.”

Comments: Kalen.McCain@southeastiowaunion.com