There’s a woman begging. She wears a flannel shirt. Grime smears her face. Gauze covers her hands.
Nearby, a girl in a dirty white shirt sits and plays the maracas, her eyes staring off at nothing. Finally, there’s the man with skin tanned to leather. He plays the guitar and waits for handouts.
This is the reality of life for the homeless of Lawrence. Steve Ozark, Founder and Director of Lawrence’s Inter-faith Initiative, wants it to stop.
“One thing the homeless are really missing is relationships,” he says. “The city’s case managers are overloaded; they see their clients once a month if they’re lucky. We’d like to see more relationships… We want these people to have a sense of community,” Ozark said.
Housing the homeless isn’t the problem in Lawrence, Ozark said. The real problem, he says, is people’s inability to keep up with Lawrence’s cost of living and unwillingness of many citizens to invest in Lawrence’s homeless for the long-term. Ozark said finding these people long-term housing should be the number one priority of the city. The city estimates a homeless population of about 645 people.
“Everyone agrees that Lawrence is short on permanent supportive housing. Our focus is to find funding so that we can house 4-7 people in a supportive community-like setting.” Ozark said.
That’s why Ozark and the Inter-faith Initiative are now working to get money to start their own supportive housing without the help of the city. Supportive housing is a semi-permanent to permanent house that would keep four to seven tenants for as long as they want to stay. The house would make sure that the tenants were kept safe, help get them necessary medications and work on getting jobs, hoping the tenants would eventually move on to their own home.
Shirley Martin Smith, the head of the Community Coalition on homeless, the city’s advisory board composed of homeless advocates said that she loves the idea of a permanent supportive housing project in Lawrence. Smith believes the plan is not only feasible in the near future, but also that it will be important in Lawrence’s future.
“From what I know about it, it will be a very important component to fully serving a variety of homeless,” Martin-Smith said.
Loring Henderson, head of the Lawrence Community Shelter who also helps head the Community Coalition on Homelessness was similar in his praise, but also believed the city needed to work faster to help the homeless of Lawrence.
“This is a stage of growth in the city; dealing with the homeless. The first level was building emergency shelters. We need to realize what the next steps are. We need what Steve is doing, and he’s doing it on his own,” he said. “It’s [permanent supportive housing] is a good thing, and we need more of it through the city, state and local levels.”
Currently, Lawrence has several emergency shelters but only one supportive housing center: the Hope Building, a joint housing project to help chronically homeless people with mental impairments find a home.
Nathan Ledford, who sits in front of US Bank on Massachusetts St. with a cardboard sign that reads “HOMELESS WALLET STOLEN NEED MONEY TO GET HOME,” doesn’t think the city’s current homeless services are enough.
“The shelters here aren’t good for getting people off the streets. It’s good for the night, but not forever,” Ledford said. “They get you clothing and food, but not the kind you’d like. We’re homeless, but we’d still like to provide for ourselves.” He said.
Inter-faith has already found plenty of locations that it would rent for their housing project; currently Ozark is working with the religious organizations of Lawrence to raise enough money to get a three-year lease on a house. He’s also looking for volunteers to work at the housing project. Ozark says his presentation to the city commission asking for money didn’t go quite as planned.
“The City said ‘go out and get the faith organizations to pay,’ but I think we all need to have a hand in this,” Ozark said.
Shirley Martin-Smith and the Community Coalition on Homelessness are still working on a package to present to the city to officially say what the city’s responsibilities are to the homeless.
“Our Presentation [to the city] is coming along very well. We’re contacting the faith based community for input. We’re hoping to have study session with city commissioners in late June,” Martin-Smith said.
Although Ozark is a little frustrated with the city’s response to the issue of homeless in Lawrence, the presence of City Commissioner Dennis Highberger at Inter-faith’s last meeting was heartening.
Inter-faith was Ozark’s idea of starting about 29 months ago after Ozark had ended his tenure with the city’s Community Coalition on Homelessness. He said that he saw that the homeless community needed not only money, but also manpower.
Ozark said Inter-faith has had as many as 50 faith organizations working together at any given time, encompassing Christians, Muslims, Jews and Buddhists. Ozark hopes someday to have all religious groups in Lawrence working with Inter-faith towards getting a good groundwork for homeless care in Lawrence.
Once the supportive housing gets off the ground, Ozark said he would also be looking for a KU master of social welfare student to live in the shelter and help the occupants in exchange for free room and board. Ozark believes it would be a win-win situation, as the student would receive valuable experience, and the tenants of the housing project would have someone with them all the time.
