Coalition addresses homelessness in SMTX
In her book, "Rising Strong," Brene Brown talks about the importance of Day Two in the process of creating or building something. Brown, a researcher and motivational speaker, goes on to say that all projects have a beginning, a middle and an end: Day One is the start, Day Two is the Struggle, and Day Three is the Triumph.
On Friday, Oct. 9, over 75 San Marcos organizations and individuals met to discuss the issue of homelessness in the community. The goal is to form a comprehensive organization — a Local Homeless Coalition, or LHC — that will cast a broad net over Hays County, meeting the needs of the growing number of people who are homeless or housing-insecure in the area.
According to Tegan Debrock, one of the coordinators of the LHC, that meeting was Day One. Now is when the real work begins.
“The next meeting is going to be critical,” said Debrock. “We want to go through a more formal process so that we can stay established in the future.”
At the Oct. 9 meeting, which occurred over Zoom, Debrock provided an overview of the state of homelessness in the San Marcos area as captured by the Point-in-Time (PIT) count, which is a count of sheltered and unsheltered people experiencing homelessness on a single night in January 2020. In a previous story, Debrock noted that the PIT count for San Marcos happened before the onset of COVID-19, which has led the HOME Center of Central Texas to see an increase of five times the number of requests for service since the pandemic hit.
At that point, Deborah Carter, the Workforce Specialist Librarian at the San Marcos Public Library, led a discussion among community agencies in an effort to map all of the existing services currently provided to individuals and families experiencing homelessness. Representatives of advocacy groups, career resource centers and community centers, as well as San Marcos CISD, Gary Job Corps, the City of San Marcos, local churches, and elected officials were present to talk about what services their organizations currently provide.
City Manager Bert Lumbreras added that this would enable the homeless coalition to coordinate resources while also exposing the gaps in service, where at-risk families and individuals might slip through the cracks in the system.
“Our interest is that we really want to be a part of helping facilitate things that are needed,” Lumbreras said. “There needs to be a very well-coordinated approach that is all synced up with all the systems we use ... Having that client data that we can share and all see in terms of who we’re serving, what they need, and where the gaps are. I’m a big supporter of that. It’ll start giving us a clear picture not only where the needs are but who’s doing what. It gives people an opportunity to say ‘I can do that, I can help with that.’”
The meeting concluded with a presentation by Jen Beardsley, an LHC Specialist from the Texas Homeless Network. Using research and best practices for community engagement, Beardsley examines how other coalitions around Texas operate in order to communicate what can be effective here.
“Homeless coalitions are organizations of organizations,” Beardsley said. “Varied membership is really important, so it’s really awesome that you have such a great representation here today.”
Beardsley went on to stress the importance of staying connected in order to establish the LHC in San Marcos. “In your endeavor, the coalition will serve as a backbone organization for the other organizations that make up the coalition,” she said. “It’s important to keep in touch and interact within the coalition.”
“What I like about this is that it’s all folks at the ground level who are stepping up to have an impact,” Lumbreras said. “We want to work off the energy and great talents that are here.”
As the San Marcos Homeless Coalition forms, Debrock remains focused on the crucial next steps for establishing the organization as well as the boots-on-the-ground work of tending to those who are in immediate need.
“We need a PIT count in January 2021,” Debrock said. “We want to keep working, keep moving forward, so if you can’t make it please send a representative from your organization.”
The next meeting of the San Marcos Homeless Coalition is set for Friday, Nov. 6 at 10 a.m. and will be hosted on Zoom through the San Marcos Public Library. Check the SMPL events page for more information.
