St. Benedict’s Homeless Shelter is revamping their volunteer-based outreach efforts focused on educating and providing resources to help homeless and displaced persons better their lives and situations.
Harry Pedigo, director at St. Benedict’s, said the efforts have been in place for a few years, but the pandemic put a hold on the program for months before it recently took off again.
Pedigo said he’s been working with volunteers from a number of local organizations and nonprofits such as Helping Hands Owensboro as well as Grow in Grace. Ami Hunt, who runs Grow in Grace, was designated as the volunteer outreach coordinator about six months ago.
Part of what prompted Pedigo to reimplement outreach efforts stemmed from a number of concerns and incidents reported by citizens regarding “tent camps” across town.
“The last couple of months we’ve been getting more and more calls about encampments. You could tell they were living there, but a lot of them are out roaming, looking for work or panhandling during the day,” Pedigo said.
Reaching out to those living in encampments can be dangerous, Pedigo noted. There comes a point when helping can become toxic and enabling as well, so the outreach process requires an understanding on how to offer and encourage others to help themselves.
“There’s a right way to do it,” he said. “We don’t want to do a disservice to those individuals.”
Pedigo said one of the most prominent issues facing those living in tent camps is drug and alcohol abuse.
“They have a kind of leader (at a tent camp), and I met with him. I know him really well because he’s been around for a long time,” Pedigo said. “He said he wasn’t ready to stop using drugs. I appreciated his honesty. He said that over 90% of those (living in the encampment) were doing drugs or drinking alcohol.”
Pedigo said when the leader of an encampment is drinking and doing drugs, it can set an unhealthy precedent for the rest of the camp. But perhaps more importantly than that, he noted, was the sense of community that comes with belonging and “being a part of something.”
While Pedigo doesn’t believe there are more homeless individuals living on the streets than in years past, he said he’s seeing more people come to Owensboro from out of town.
Pedigo said oftentimes homeless individuals that he, Hunt and others reach out to don’t even know about the resources for homelessness available in the area. Other times, their pride gets in the way of accepting help, Pedigo said.
Pedigo said one of the main goals of outreach is to make others feel worthy of a better life. Owensboro City and Daviess County leaders have been very involved and want to help, he added.
However, Pedigo said a solution does not come from the government allocating public land or taxpayer dollars to house tent camps — instead it all comes down to the individual’s desire and effort to change their life.
“Can we all do more? Absolutely,” he said. “However, the solution is ultimately up to that individual to change. [Homelessness] is an experience, not a problem. The problem comes from the underlying issues, which have to be addressed first.”
