Local officials on Thursday discussed the issues with homelessness in Owensboro and Daviess County in recent years — namely talking about those who are currently homeless or displaced and as a result taking to the streets or tent camps.
Though City and County government leaders have teamed up with various shelters and the Daviess County Emergency Management Agency to put programs in place for those on the streets, officials said many homeless individuals still choose not to reside in shelters for various reasons.
“Owensboro is actually very resource-rich when it comes to helping those that are marginalized and homeless,” said Harry Pedigo,St. Benedict’s Homeless Shelter Director. “Right now, we have 12 beds open. It’s not due to a lack of availability. What we’ve found is, a lot of them don’t want to follow rules. A lot of them have social anxieties where they don’t want to be around large groups.”
More often than not, Pedigo said, a number of homeless individuals don’t want to be separated from each other or their pets.
Judge-Executive Al Mattingly and Mayor Tom Watson discussed the “tent camp” at English Park that had been housing a number of homeless individuals for years. Watson said the City was currently looking into eradicating the brush in that area to prompt those in the tents to relocate.
He called the issue “heartbreaking,” but said the Owensboro Police Department had received a number of complaints due to homeless individuals allegedly sneaking into the garages or asking for food from the people who live in condominiums near English Park.
“We’re all in to try and help them,” Watson said. “At the same time, somebody left a big mess at English Park on the ramp. [Assistant City Manager] Lelan Hancock went down there to clean it up.”
A $17,000 contract between the City and a contractor is in negotiations to help clear the area, but Watson said it could take a while before the community started seeing the results of that clean-up effort.
One man told Pedigo that he chose to live outside because it was stress-free and he enjoyed it. However, Pedigo — who was homeless himself for 15 years — said he found that hard to believe.
“If we’re not careful how we help them, we could be enabling somebody,” he said. “You can tell me you love living on the streets, but there’s no way somebody can enjoy it. We become comfortable in the bottom of our pits and we find some sort of security there, but that doesn’t mean we want to be there.”
Pedigo said he understood a lot of people had been displaced because they didn’t have the resources they needed — such as an I.D. — but that St. Benedict’s was not in the business of turning people away for not having the materials they needed. However, he said his staff performed a background check on individuals through OPD to ensure the safety of everyone at the shelter and to avoid taking in fugitives.
Both Mattingly and Watson said there was not much they could do legally to keep homeless individuals off public property, though they noted that hundreds of subsidized housing properties existed within City limits. Unfortunately, they said, there was a waiting list already in place for those seeking locations.
Pedigo said there were also 20 transitional housing units — all of which required sober living — in the area that hadn’t been in place years prior.
“I would just encourage you, if you’re moving in that direction, not to give up,” Mattingly said. “You’re just going to have to keep calling.”
Pedigo noted that he was seeing more and more children transition out of the foster care system and become homeless right out of high school because they didn’t want to go back to living under the state’s care.
“It’s a growing problem,” he said. “What we try to do with those individuals — the longer they’re here, the higher their chance of becoming high-risk for chronic homelessness. But if they can come in, get a job, be guided, they can get out and be on their own within six months and be successful.”
