Wednesday, June 27, 2007
Good summer weather and flooded camp grounds are causing many Lawrence shelters to notice an increase in the visibility of the homeless around town.
Brenten Antholz, a 2007 Fort Hays State University graduate who took some of his courses at the University this spring, said he’d seen an increase in the number of homeless people coming into the shop where he works asking for spare change or cardboard boxes to make signs.
“The weather’s better so of course, you’re going to see more down there,”
Antholz, has worked for a year at White Chocolate, a skateboard shop at 1005 Massachusetts St. He said he sees an increase in the homeless population in the summer months.
“I used to give money, but not anymore,” he said. “I’m a little hardened now that I’ve lived in Lawrence.”
Michelle, a homeless woman who wished to withhold her surname, has lived at the community shelter since January 2006. She had been engaged to a man in Kansas City, Mo., until he was placed in a state mental health care facility and the couple lost their home. She said she decided to move to Lawrence because she said it was safer.
“If I go to a college town it’s a more nurturing foundation,” Michelle said. “I’m very thankful to be here.”
She said she’d noticed more homeless people here in Lawrence lately, probably because of rain that flooded out the local campgrounds. She doesn’t work and said she was just trying to figure out her own living arrangements.
“I don’t know where exactly I should be,” she said.
Liz Coleman, shelter manager at the Salvation Army, 946 New Hampshire St., said the summer months are historically a travel time for larger numbers of homeless individuals.
That’s part of the reason the average number of nightly shelter visitors rose from 20 in May 2006 to 43 people the same time this year. The other cause for the spike has been recent rainfall.
“I would say it’s a weather thing,” Coleman said. “It’s been too wet to pitch tents or make fires.”
Currently the majority of the Lawrence homeless population are men, said Donnie Hornberger, director of community relations for the Salvation Army.
Of the 60 beds the shelter holds, six are designated for women only. For the first time since the shelter acquired the bunks from a shelter partner, homeless people occupied all 60 bunks June 20, Hornberger said.
The Lawrence Community Shelter, 214 W. 10th St., is almost always at it’s maximum overnight capacity of 31 people, said Loring Henderson, the shelter’s director.
Because the maximum is constantly the same, he said he didn’t think there were more homeless people in town, maybe just more of them were visible in the summer.
“Generally speaking, people use the service more in the winter than the summer,” Henderson said. “I don’t see a lot of new faces particularly.”
The difference between the community shelter and the Salvation Army is the shelter is open, meaning residents don’t have to submit to a Breathalyzer check at night like they must at the Salvation Army. The shelter also doesn’t allow residents under 18 years old, Henderson said.
As a member of the Lawrence Community Commission on Homelessness, Henderson has worked to find a plan to reduce chronic homelessness, and touch on varied homeless needs like employment and health insurance.
He said the commission estimated there are 100 homeless individuals each night in Lawrence, although they may stay with friends or camp on the banks of the Kansas River or under the Kansas River bridge.
— Edited by Ben Smith
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