Event for homeless sees more parents of young children
3/21/2009
Indianapolis Star, Will Higgins

Organizers expected to see children at Friday's Indy Homeless Connect event at the Indiana Convention Center.

But not this many.

Last year, a dozen kids were dropped off at the makeshift nursery throughout the day while their parents, battling homelessness, walked across the hall to seek help from the dozen or so agencies with booths at the annual day of community outreach to the homeless.

On Friday, the nursery's total was 49. The youngest was 2 months; most were younger than 5.

With the economy tanking, more and more families with children are becoming homeless, advocates say. Such families already had been close to the edge, in low-paying jobs and with little savings.
"It was paycheck to paycheck," said Timothy C. Joyce, executive director of the Coalition for Homelessness Intervention and Prevention, "and now there's no paycheck."

"They tend not to have much work experience," said Lori E. Casson, executive director of the Dayspring Center, one of three Indianapolis homeless shelters that takes in families. "And the entry-level jobs they used to get are being taken by more experienced people who've lost higher-paying jobs."

Nearly 900 adults attended the event, the fourth annual, which aims to connect homeless people with a variety of services, such as legal consultations and haircuts. Last year, 600 people attended.

Figuring out the size of the homeless population is problematic, though CHIP attempts it annually. The group's last count, a one-night census taken in January, is still being tabulated, but the preliminary estimate is 1,500.

That's about the same as last year's count, and it's significantly lower than in previous years: 1,864 in 2007 and 2,061 in 2006.

But the two most recent counts were taken on particularly cold nights, and even the census takers concede they could have missed large numbers of homeless who may have huddled out of sight in abandoned buildings.

Jeremy Hauger wasn't counted; he's new in town, having arrived in Indianapolis from Linton in February. Hauger, 25, was at Indy Homeless Connect to try to find a job and to use the free telephone service to call his mother in Terre Haute. "I hadn't talked to her in months," he said, "so that was good."

He was not confident about his job prospects. "The economy is not looking good," he said, "but you got to be hopeful."

The homeless count doesn't take into account people who are staying at friends' or family members' houses, a highly tenuous existence. "That kind of safety net can hold only so long," Joyce said.

For school-age kids, the constant uprooting leads to spotty school attendance. "Many fall out of the education system as a result of their homelessness," said Michael A. Hurst, CHIP's program director.

The uncertainty causes stress on children, too.
"These kids, when they wake up in the morning, they don't know where they're going to be sleeping that night," Hurst said. "It could be a shelter for a few days, then Grandma's, then a motel, maybe a car. It's hard enough for an adult to cope with that stress, but to put it on a child can be very harmful."
The estimates of local homelessness are exceedingly broad and reflect the fluidity of housing when it comes to the poorest: 4,500 to 7,500 people "experience homelessness" during the course of a year; about 1,200 of those are thought to be children.

Organizers of Friday's event had anticipated that three volunteers would be enough for the nursery. Soon they called for reinforcements.

Throughout the day, seven volunteers read to the children or colored with them at tot-sized tables. Some kids just wanted to be held.

Adam Ohls, a 19-year-old college sophomore from Fishers, started a game of basketball using a plastic ball. "It was fun," Ohls said, "but it was humbling, just amazing so many kids don't have homes."

Nationally, about 1.5 million children are homeless, according to a report released earlier this month by the National Center on Family Homelessness.

Donny Robinette, who works for the Homeless Initiative Project, is an expert at the ground level. He was once homeless and knows where all the homeless camps are in Marion County. Robinette, who helped transport homeless people to Indy Homeless Connect, said he was confident there'd been an increase in the local homeless population in the past 12 months -- "a big jump, I'd say."

Additional Facts
TO LEARN MORE
Here are some Web sites where you can learn more about helping to address homelessness:

www.chipindy.org -- View the Web site for the Coalition for Homelessness Intervention and Prevention. Learn more about the city's efforts to combat homelessness and how you can help.

www.chipindy.org/blueprint.aspx -- View the city's Blueprint to End Homelessness.

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