This is fourth of a four-column series about homelessness in Beaufort County.

As we have seen in the previous articles in this series, men, women and children become homeless for a variety of reasons. Some because of mental illness; some due to alcohol and drug abuse; others due to job loss; and still others to escape abusive domestic situations.

But we have also seen that the poor are caught in a double bind. The problem of a lack of funds to afford housing is compounded by the lack of housing to afford. In fact, it is the scarcity of affordable housing in the United States that is behind a poor person’s inability to acquire or maintain housing. Mental-health and addiction issues may contribute to one’s falling into homelessness, but they are not as causative as the insufficiency of funds to apply to housing and of the lack of affordable apartments to rent.

 

The shortage of affordable housing

Each year, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development awards a certain number of vouchers to local housing authorities throughout the nation to distribute to qualified applicants. Local authorities then search for apartment owners in the private market who are willing to participate in what is called the Section 8 housing program. The housing authority, however, does not find units for the homeless to rent; it is up to each person/family awarded a voucher to find housing among apartments participating in the program.

Finding Section 8 rentals is especially difficult for those released from jails and prisons. Few, if any, Beaufort County apartment owners are willing to rent to that portion of the homeless population.

In 2016, HUD granted 370 vouchers to the Washington Housing Authority, but the authority was only able to award 240 due to a shortage of owners willing to accept Section 8 vouchers. According to Jeannie Neal, executive director of the Washington Housing Authority, “We can’t find enough owners willing to put units under the program.”

In addition, each year HUD reevaluates the number of vouchers awarded and adjusts for the next year according to how many vouchers were used the previous year. If the statistics remain as they now are, the authority will lose a substantial number of vouchers in 2017.

When apartment owners sign up with the program or new Section 8 living quarters are built, they fill up almost immediately, Neal attests, because the waiting list is so long. At present, there are 450 persons/families waiting for a Section 8 apartment on the Washington Housing Authority list. Because of the shortage of affordable housing in Beaufort County, they are forced to wait, on average, for seven years.

 

Increasing poverty   

Two factors help account for increasing poverty in Beaufort County: eroding employment opportunities for large segments of the workforce (mainly due to job exodus to foreign countries and the 2008 recession) and the declining value and availability of public assistance. Nationally, of the 2.5 million to 3.5 million homeless persons in the country, 1 million are working full-time or part-time but unable to afford adequate shelter because of insufficient income.

In Beaufort County, 52.4 percent of renters spent 30 percent or more of their income toward rent on average from 2010 through 2014. According to the North Carolina Justice Center, 18.8 percent of county residents (8,863 people) lived in poverty and struggled to make ends meet in 2014. That percentage includes 2,860 children.

As reported in the first installment of this series, for a Beaufort County resident to afford a modest, two-bedroom apartment at the fair market value of $632, he would need a full-time job paying $25,280 per year, $2,106 per month, $526 per week or $12.15 per hour. That amount far exceeds the minimum wage of $7.25 per hour. Statewide, 122,000 workers earn $7.25 per hour or less.

 

Possible solutions

Solutions, to be effective, must address the causes of a problem. For the most part, homelessness is caused by socio-economic factors beyond the control of the individual or family. Poor life choices, mental health issues and drug addictions may contribute to homelessness, but their influence is not as great as the lack of adequate funds and the availability of adequate shelter.

One solution to the homeless problem, then, would be to raise the minimum wage to a level whereby homeless county and city residents could better afford to rent apartments or buy homes.

Another remedy would be to provide more affordable housing, which would include an increase in the number of apartment owners willing to participate in the Washington Housing Authority’s Section 8 program.

The absence of a shelter for women and children in Beaufort County is being addressed by the Beaufort County 360 Coalition task force on homelessness and housing. Members of this committee include people from local nonprofit agencies, Department of Social Services, Trillium, Beaufort County Health Department and several churches. The first meeting was held Oct. 21.

A fourth and final solution would be to couple supportive services to affordable housing. Supportive services would be offered to the poor and homeless to assist them in attaining and keeping housing and would include:

• mental health services (many of which have been defunded or severely underfunded by state and federal budget reductions);
• alcohol and drug addiction treatment centers;
• assistance with job searches;
• assistance with finding permanent housing.

These services would, of course, require funding, but studies have shown that providing homeless persons with permanent supportive housing saves taxpayers money in the long run.

The Washington Housing Authority is currently working with HUD on an initiative to allow it to collaborate with other local governmental and nonprofit agencies to help homeless persons and families acquire the funds needed for rental deposits, furniture and appliances. Building Partnerships to End Homelessness also would assist the homeless in finding and maintaining permanent housing which, of course, would reduce the number of homeless persons in the city and county.

The Washington Police Department, sensitive to the unique challenges homeless persons and families pose for law enforcement, has partnered with the Greenville Police Department to receive critical incident training for all staff officers. According to Capt. William Chrismon of WPD, such training will equip officers to more effectively respond to homeless persons in crisis — especially those with mental-health or substance-abuse issues.

In conclusion

No one in his right mind would chose to become homeless. No one wants to live a life on the streets or sleep in abandoned buildings, tents and cars, not knowing where the next meal is coming from.

In addition to these hardships, homelessness can be hard work. Homeless persons are forced to forage for survival, make the rounds of social-services agencies and soup kitchens, try to protect what few possessions they have, replace stolen property, medications, phones and identities when stolen and wait in line after line to enter temporary shelters and take showers.

If the cause of homelessness does not lie mainly with the homeless person or family but with systemic social and economic policies, then solutions become the responsibility of those who have the greatest influence on socio-economic factors — national, state, county and city governments, public and private agencies, nonprofit organizations, including churches, and private citizens who want to help feed and house the “least of these” in our midst.

We are not bereft of solutions. Those listed above are only four of many. In the presence of solutions, the question becomes one of will. To what extent are county and city leaders and residents willing to dedicate time and resources to help homeless citizens obtain permanent housing for themselves and their families?

Time will tell.

Polk Culpepper is a retired Episcopal priest and a resident of Beaufort County.