Local groups meet to address homelessness
When driving through town on Highway 80 toward the big H-E-B, you might notice more people than usual gathered in the sheltered spaces beneath Interstate 35. Head north into Austin, and you’ll find enclaves of homeless people congregating at Slaughter Lane, at Highway 290, in the downtown area, and further north on Airport Blvd.
For many of us, that’s the closest we’ll come to home lessness — passing by on the freeway, unable to fully grasp who these people are and how they came to be there. It might seem simple to dismiss the issue from the rear-view mirror, but as the COVID-19 pandemic has taken its toll on Texas families, the number of housing-insecure individuals has significantly increased, exposing gaps in services as well as common misconceptions about what it means to be homeless.
“Homelessness is not always what it appears to be,” said Tegan Debrock of the HOME Center of Central Texas, a nonprofit organization that hopes to unite community efforts to prevent and address homelessness while educating the community about it as an issue. Debrock went on to explain that a number of factors can lead to homelessness and housing insecurity, and since the outbreak of the coronavirus, these factors have increased. People who were clinging to a safety net of family and friends before COVID-19 might find themselves in a more vulnerable predicament as circumstances change. Families and individuals who were considered ‘invisible homeless’ — someone who does not have a secure place of their own to call home — might suddenly become one of the ‘visible homeless’ — which are homeless individuals we see in public.
“The coronavirus’ impact on employment and homelessness has been significant,” Debrock said. “When something like a pandemic happens, if you’re sleeping on someone’s couch, they can ask you to leave for health reasons. You’re working in the public every day, which puts you at risk, and if the family you’re staying with is also taking care of their elderly grandma, then suddenly you’re homeless.”
Debrock said that HOME Center has seen an increase of five times the number of requests for help from San Marcos and Hays County residents since the onset of the pandemic. The quarantine impacted every support system, including employment, housing, education and child care.
“When the pandemic hit, those who are housing insecure — people who are compromised and at-risk of losing homes; for example, residents of hotels and motels — many were unable to get enough hours to pay for their hotel rooms,” Debrock said. “Even people experiencing homelessness but who have a car are having issues because they don’t have gas money to get to their jobs.”
Another issue that arises due to housing insecurity — something that people might take for granted — is access to clean water. Debrock said that a common request when the pandemic hit was for a place for bathing. “A lot of people were saying, ‘if you can’t get me housing, can you get me a shower?’” Debrock said. Due to the pandemic, access to the San Marcos River had been restricted so that homeless people who relied on it could no longer access the water.
Due to the quarantine, a number of places that provided services to people shut down, further widening the holes in the blanket of coverage available to people who were already housing insecure.
“After COVID hit, a lot of those resources have melted away,” Debrock said. “We need it now more than ever.”
Many organizations and churches have recognized the increased need for services to aid people impacted by homelessness. San Marcos Consolidated ISD — which currently documents around 300 children experiencing homelessness at this time — has coordinated with area schools to continue feeding programs for families in need.
Another issue people are facing now is a lack of cohesion between organizations, which can further impede a person’s ability to access services available to them.
“Right now, all the services seem disconnected,” said Deborah Carter, the San Marcos Public Library’s Workforce Specialist Librarian. “What we need is a place that wherever a person enters the system, they can have access to all services … a coordinated entry system where everyone has a case manager. That way a person who needs services isn’t running around all over town, advocating for themselves.”
On Oct. 9, The Texas Homelessness Network, the San Marcos Public Library and The HOME Center hosted a community workshop for a Coalition on Homelessness. The coalition hopes to map available assets in an effort to network and evaluate available resources, and will continue to meet to help address the needs of homeless and housing insecure families in our area.
“There is real work to be done right now that will be impactful,” Carter said. Call 512-393-8200 for more information or visit homecentertx.org.
chollister
@sanmarcosrecord.com
