Homeless folks are looking for warmth

Dec. 9—EDITOR'S NOTE — Some of the people interviewed in this report are experiencing houselessness. In order to protect their privacy, The Daily Independent has opted to use aliases.

ASHLAND Marty sits at a table Tuesday morning at The Neighborhood, a one-stop shop for services for the homeless and the poor.

With mashed potatoes and beef stew sticking to his ribs, Marty said for the last two years, he's been getting his meals here.

A man in his late 60s, Marty said he never envisioned living without a home when he returned from the Vietnam War. and for a long time, he didn't, until he lost his family two years ago.

It's been hard on Marty — for the last two nights, a kind soul has agreed to rent out a motel room for him.

But other nights, he's slept on the loading docks of The Neighborhood, which he admits is against the rules.

"It's hard on my body," he said. "I'm too old for this."

Since Marty knows a lot of folks in the community, he said he's got it easier than some — he can find a Good Samaritan to help him out.

Kyle, wearing a baggy button-up shirt and pajama pants, said he's had to survive in a tent in 10-degree weather.

"You got to eat, keep moving to stay warm," he said. "It's tough, but you got to do what you got to do."

While neither man said they have broken into the abandoned houses dotting the Ashland landscape, they have heard others doing it. Kyle said it came from a place of desperation.

"People will do what they can to stay warm," he said.

Jeremy Holbrook, director of The Neighborhood, said the push over the last year by the city to raze blighted and abandoned properties has "brought homelessness to the forefront."

"I think there's more homeless people in Ashland than we realize and bringing down these properties has pushed people out into the open," he said.

With 31,000 check-ins last year — and 2022 is on par for this year — Holbrook said the problem has always been here. It's just becoming more visible, in part due to the houses being knocked down.

For the record, check-ins doesn't mean total amount of people — it's just how many times somebody has sought services. Meaning, one person could make multiple check-ins, but each check-in is counted separately.

On average, Holbrook said The Neighborhood is serving about 150-200 people a week.

Homeless people seeking warmth in abandoned houses can lead to fires, according to Ashland Fire Marshal Brad Maggard.

"There's no electric or gas going to these properties, so they try to use alternative sources of heat like candles to stay warm," he said. "That can cause problems."

Because the properties are usually in a state of disrepair, special precautions have to be made by the fire service, Maggard said.

"For one, we don't know if somebody is inside there, so we might have to perform a rescue, putting our guys in harm's way," Maggard said. "Also, we don't know how stable the structure is, so doing those rescues can be risky."

While in the past there's been spates of fires at abandoned houses when Arctic-like temperatures set in, Maggard said so far the only one his agency has responded to it the fire at Vincent Apartments — condemned earlier this year — back in October.

That fire damaged the building's fourth-floor hallway.

DJ Rymer, who oversees the demolition of blighted properties in the city, said there's currently 70 condemned properties in the city and 66 have been demolished.

During this time of year, Rymer said he sees plenty of evidence of squatters inside the houses.

"We find trash, clothes, food wrappers, some drug paraphernalia," he said. "We find where they break in through the windows and the doors."

Rymer said he hasn't heard much from the community about homeless folks being pushed out into the open due to the demolitions, but there have been a couple concerns raised.

"Most of the time, we don't hear it from the people in the neighborhood we tore a house down in, but from an adjacent neighborhood," he said. "The homeowners might approach us and say they've seen an uptick in folks since the house has been torn down."

On one occasion, Rymer said he saw an encampment erected after a house was cleared off the property.

Ashland Police Chief Todd Kelley said his agency gets called in after code enforcement condemns a property, with his officers providing assistance when it appears somebody has been living inside the structure.

If someone is caught inside, Kelley said the police can charge them with criminal trespassing.

As far as criminal issues are concerned, Kelley said neighborhoods with abandoned houses might experience a little bit of theft, but typically of items needed for folks to stay warm.

"They might steal a patio cushion or something like that," he said. "It's not like other thefts where someone might steal something to sell. It's more for immediate survival needs."

Unlike big cities, where an abandoned house might be turned into a shooting gallery — a place where users can ingest drugs and dealers are on hand to sell product to them — Kelley said his officers are finding signs of drug use more than anything else.

"It's definitely more for use," he said." Sometimes, people aren't even living there. They're just going in to use drugs."

Ashland Mayor Matt Perkins, who is heading up a task force addressing the issue, said the destruction of abandoned and blighted properties jives with addressing the issue of homelessness.

"At the end of the day, those are properties where people are staying there and it's not their own. We can't just stop knocking over those structures because people are illegally staying inside them," he said.

Like Maggard, Perkins cited safety issues surrounding fires inside those homes.

This past Monday, Perkins said he met with the task force and long-term housing for folks getting off the streets.

"I say that we have good system for emergency shelter and for transitional housing, but what we're lacking is long-term housing," he said. "If you look at Houston and Denver, they have a housing-first model. What they've found is 90% of the people they've housed are still housed after two years."

Perkins said in the future, there's probably going to have to be multi-unit housing for formerly homeless, with services within walking distance.

"They need support, whether that be for mental health or for addiction," he said. "If we just house somebody and not give them the support they need, that's not sustainable. For someone with a mental health issue or an addiction, simple things like paying the bills on time are monumentally hard."

Perkins was clear that while government could support the efforts, the solution will also come from the "experts on the front lines dealing with these problems every day."

Back at The Neighborhood, Kyle said the struggles to get permanent housing are real for those who have lost a home.

"It's an uphill battle," he said. "Just when you think you're getting somewhere, you're a few steps back again."