Grant-funded services tackle homelessness in Cape Girardeau County

Four local social-service organizations spend nearly $280,000 a year combating homelessness in Cape Girardeau County, according to those involved in the effort.

Federally funded Emergency Solutions grants distributed by the state of Missouri pay 50 percent of the cost, with each agency providing a 100 percent match for its grant amount, said Steve Williams, housing assistance coordinator for the city of Cape Girardeau.

Williams coordinates grants provided to the Salvation Army, Safe House for Women, Catholic Charities of Southern Missouri and the Community Caring Council.

Williams said the four organizations partner to address homelessness.

"We want to get the best services we can for all of our clients," he said.

Representatives of the four organizations, including case workers, meet regularly to coordinate services, Williams said.

The current $139,122 provided by Housing and Urban Development (HUD) includes $7,000 to the Salvation Army for street outreach, $35,552 to the Safe House for Women for emergency shelter and $46,400 each to Catholic Charities of Southern Missouri and the Community Caring Council.

Catholic Charities uses its share of the funding to keep people from being evicted from their apartments and becoming homeless. The Community Caring Council focuses on securing housing for homeless people.

Another $3,800 goes to administrative costs. The city of Cape Girardeau provides half of the matching amount; the county government and city of Jackson provide the other half, Williams said.

The grant period began Jan. 1 and ends March 31, 2018.

The federal government has different definitions of homelessness in determining eligibility, Williams said.

One of the definitions covers those who are fleeing domestic violence. Another deals with those at imminent risk of homelessness. Another defines homeless people or families as those who lack "a fixed, regular and adequate nighttime residence."

Counting the homeless

Homelessness often goes unseen by the public, but it is a problem, leaders of the four social-service organizations said.

Numbers are difficult to come by, they said.

The Missouri Housing Development Commission takes point-in-time counts. Those counts typically record the homeless population in Cape Girardeau County at about 100.

But Connie Koerner-Bean, housing coordinator for Catholic Charities, said such counts are "hit or miss."

Melissa Stickel, who directs the Community Caring Council, said there are many more homeless.

Stickel said homeless counts don't include those who are "temporarily staying on couches" in friends' homes or living in their cars.

Stickel said her organization dealt with "two families with children sleeping in their cars just this week."

Jessica Hill, executive director of the Safe House for Women, said, "We have so many people sleeping in their cars."

Hill said her organization's shelter houses about 120 women and 80 children annually. Without such a shelter, many of these people would have no place to stay, she said.

The grant pays the shelter's utility bills, repairs and security monitoring, Hill said. It also is used for furnishings.

If the shelter is full, grant money can be used to pay the cost of a hotel room for a client, she said.

It also goes for public transportation, as many of the shelter's clients don't have cars, Hill said. The Safe House spends about $500 a month on public transportation for clients, according to Hill.

Rental assistance

Catholic Charities serves about a dozen homeless families a year through the grant program, providing months of rental and utility assistance to keep them from being evicted, Koerner-Bean said.

"We usually start out helping them entirely," she said.

Many of these families have lost jobs. Some have chronic illnesses that have hampered them financially, Koerner-Bean said.

Typically, six to 12 months of assistance is "enough to get a person stabilized," she said.

George Neal of Cape Girardeau was one of those helped by Catholic Charities. He lost his job and was unable to pay his rent. He turned to Catholic Charities for help. Without rental assistance, Neal said he would have been homeless.

"It was a dire situation," said Neal.

After months of assistance, including fuel vouchers, Neal, who has a 5-year-old daughter, said he has found a temporary job and is in better shape financially.

While Neal never was homeless, the Community Caring Council, headquartered in the same building as Catholic Charities, works to secure rental housing and assistance for those who are homeless.

At any one time, the council serves about eight to 10 families through the grant program, according to Calvin Garner, the organization's housing coordinator.

Stickel said finding rental housing can be difficult because many landlords won't rent to those who have been homeless.

In addition, homeless people may have criminal records and a history of not paying rent, she said.

The federal government limits how much money social-service agencies can pay for rental housing, she said.

In the Cape Girardeau area, that limit is $735 a month for a two-bedroom apartment, according to a government document.

Such restrictions limit their clients to "poorer neighborhoods," Stickel said.

A difficult task

Williams said the Salvation Army has a difficult job trying to reach out to the homeless on the streets.

"This is our hardest thing to do," he said.

Some of the homeless resist efforts to help them get off the streets, he said.

Stickel said the homeless often suffer from mental illness or substance abuse.

Capt. Bridgette Amick of the Salvation Army said her organization focuses largely on reaching out to the homeless in Cape Girardeau although "we will go into Jackson periodically."

Amick said the homeless often can be found near fast-food restaurants at night.

"You can't go in the middle of the day. They are not out," she said.

Amick said it takes time to build a relationship with a homeless person who often prefers to hide from society.

The local Salvation Army provided bus transportation for about 40 to 45 transient homeless individuals in the past year as well as case management, Amick said. The Salvation Army also provides hot meals and showers for those in need, she said.

Cape Girardeau does not have a traditional homeless shelter such as some cities, Amick said. She suggested the community would benefit from having such a shelter that could provide a "safe place" for the homeless.

Williams said even with the grant-funded efforts locally, "there is never enough money" to fully address homelessness.

mbliss@semissourian.com

(573) 388-3641