Cold reality of homelessness

Jan. 19—LIMA — Capt. Charity Bender shivers when she heads from her car into the Salvation Army's offices on East Market Street.

Another shudder overcomes her — a deeper, sadder one — when she thinks about the people who don't have the option of coming inside, the homeless scattered throughout Lima.

"I pray every day about that, that they're getting out of the cold somehow," Capt. Bender said. "It's cold out for me, and I'm only going from my car into the building and vice versa when I go home. I know that there are people out there who are out there longer than that. They're out there all day and all night."

Temperatures in Lima dipped as low as minus 2 degrees on Monday morning, according to the National Weather Service. Snowfall on Sunday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday reminded residents how brutal an Ohio winter can feel.

It only felt worse for those with nowhere to go. The Lima Rescue Mission is full, as is the Family Promise shelter. The cold spell hit without a single business or church opening its doors to become a warming center for the hundreds of people without a permanent residence. Family Promise and the Salvation Army opened up additional space, with a limited number of people accepting the help.

The region dealt with so many people hitting the government's definition of homeless that the two-year funding to get people back on their feet was used up back in November. They're awaiting another allotment when Ohio's next fiscal year starts in July.

"Our phones have been ringing off the hook," said Hellen Douglas, director of Family Promise of Lima-Allen County. The family homeless shelter took 89 referral calls in December, but there are only six units available at a time. "... We had to send them out to other other resources. And that's just December. So yes, it's sad. We do what we can do, right?"

The homeless population

The West Ohio Community Action Partnership handles the bookkeeping for homeless money from state and government funding sources. The program helps 200 to 300 homeless people every year, said Kim Bruns, the community services director and interim director of WOCAP.

That doesn't include the people you don't see who choose not to be part of the programs. Just because you don't see them doesn't mean they're not out there, as they're intentionally well-hidden, said Brandi Schroeder, executive director of Lima's Samaritan House, a shelter for women and children.

"We've served people here who have come in and said, 'This is really a lovely shelter, but I feel better in the woods, or I feel better in a tent,'" said Schroeder, who has worked with at-risk communities since the 1990s. "I don't know if that's a combination of past trauma, mental illness or just preference. We do know that when it gets to a certain level of coldness, it's just not safe out there."

There are federal programs through Housing and Urban Development to help address the homeless issue.

"Generally what we can do with someone who's literally homeless is pay for a deposit and the first couple months rent, and then it's all based on their income. ... So really it is getting people who are literally homeless off the streets and into their own place."

The money's all gone, though.

"We ran out of funding," Bruns said. "I've been with the agency six years, and we've never run out of our Homeless Response Plan funding since I've been here. We ran out of that in November."

Little room at shelters

Family Promise isn't the only shelter without any vacancies. Lima Rescue Mission has been full for the last several months, said executive director Chuck Ferguson. During the cold snap, the mission allowed people to stay indoors, although most still chose to leave the shelter for at least a few hours each day, Ferguson said.

"It's worse than usual," Ferguson said. "I meant, I think it's nationwide too. It's not just us, but we get calls every day for people needing places to stay, and we have a limited number. We're full. It seems like right now, we're getting people who are hanging on and not moving on."

Schroeder said Samaritan House is nearing numbers it hasn't seen since COVID-19 hit in 2020, in terms of inquiries. Tensions rise as families move in together, "doubled or tripled up," she said.

"They're just trying to see if something doesn't work out, what are my options?" Schroeder said. "A lot more people are staying in doubled up or tripled up situations because it's mutually beneficial, because they need each other to cover the bills."

Samaritan House receives some government funding, but it's less than half of the money the organization needs to operate its 17 bedrooms.

Family Promise saw its funding end Sept. 30, 2023, from a state program to send homeless families to hotels for short stays, Douglas said. Now it's trying to keep doing its work based off donations, which is the primary funding stream for all three shelters. It affects many children — "that's my heart right there," Douglas said.

"I know that a lot of the misconception about homelessness is they have to be on some substance. They have to have an addiction, or they all have a mental health crisis," Douglas said. "That's not always the case, especially with the population that we're serving, these families that are homeless."

AREA HOMELESS RESOURCES

West Ohio Community Action Partnership: 419-227-2586, wocap.org

Lima Rescue Mission: 419-224-6961, limamission.org

Samaritan House: 419-222-4663, samaritanhouselima.org

Family Promise of Lima-Allen County: 419-879-4600, familypromiseoflima.org

Reach David Trinko at 567-242-0467 or on Twitter @Lima_Trinko.