Published Monday, August 04, 2008

100 more Coweta families may be homeless this year

By Winston Skinner

The Times-Herald

About 65 people met at One Roof on Monday afternoon to talk about the growing problem of homelessness, coming up with several specific ways to address the issue.

Derenda Rowe, One Roof's executive director, talked about the growth in the problem locally since June. She remembered noting when One Roof paid for five people to stay temporarily at the Stay Lodge, a local extended-stay motel. This past week, "we paid for 12 rooms," Rowe said.

"I have at least five more families waiting in the wings," she added. Rowe predicted 75-100 more Coweta families will become homeless by the end of 2008.

Rowe noted Community Welcome House, which provides shelter for abused women and their children, has had 17 calls recently from women "who are homeless, but not abused." The St. Vincent dePaul Society, a Catholic charity, has also reported higher numbers of homeless people.

The group present included Newnan Mayor Keith Brady, Coweta County Assistant Administrator Tom Corker and Sandra Strozier, executive director of the Newnan Housing Authority. YoLanda Colton of the Coweta County Department of Family and Children Services was present, along with pastors and representatives of local churches and charities.

The group gathered in the food pantry area -- ranged from young children to senior citizens. Among specific plans made at the meeting were:

* Tina Darby, associate director of community impact with United Way in Coweta and Fayette Counties, will convene a task force to make plans to address the homeless situation in the next few days.

* Rowe and Strozier will meet today to talk about the possibility of using available public housing for emergency housing until the economic situation improves.

* a list of the people currently placed by One Roof at the Stay Lodge will be distributed to local pastor Paul Schneider, who maintains an e-mail list of area ministers. The goal is to get local churches to "adopt" a person or family to help them get their lives back in order. A similar effort was successfully mounted when families came to Coweta after Hurricane Katrina.

Darby also said the local Salvation Army has obtained a Federal Emergency Management Agency grant for $17,760. Not all of the money has yet been transferred to the Salvation Army. Darby said the money is earmarked for rent, utilities and mortgage payments for Coweta County residents.

Rowe talked about the possibility of having a shelter of some kind, even if just until the economy improves. "This doesn't have to be a permanent situation, depending upon the economy," she said.

She suggested using the former Georgia State Patrol barracks on Temple Avenue or a building on Highway 29 south of Newnan as possible sites for a temporary shelter.

In terms of when a shelter -- with cots, bath facilities and cooking/dining facilities -- is needed, Rowe stated, "Yesterday couldn't have been soon enough for me."

Linda Kirkpatrick of Welcome House suggested part of One Roof's building could be converted for use as a shelter, which could be done with a variance from the city. "You already have food. You already have furniture. You already have what you need," she said.

Rowe did not object to the idea but said someone else needs to spearhead the shelter project -- because she is already busy with the ongoing work of One Roof. "We can barely do what we're already doing. We don't have the know-how or the manpower," she said.

Brady said any space used as a shelter would have to get approval from a city building inspector. "We're very concerned about the living conditions of whoever's living in our city," he said.

"Whatever we do, we've got to make it work for health and safety," said Dr. Joel Richardson, pastor of Central Baptist Church.

Several other suggestions were offered -- including legal counseling for people being evicted and construction of inexpensive housing to be used to get homeless people back into homes and work.

Billy Arnall, One Roof treasurer, said the time limit for housing people at the Stay Lodge is based on "the resources we have."

Kirkpatrick and Rowe expressed the feeling that God provides for the ongoing work of Welcome House and One Roof. "I don't know where they money comes from," Kirkpatrick said.

Many of the people Rowe is seeing have been working at a low-paying job. They have been barely scraping by. "Then they lost that job that didn't make ends meet, and they are really on hard times," she said.

Others were working at good jobs not too long ago. "Some could be my brother. Some could be my children," Rowe said. "These are not people who want to sit and do nothing. They want to have jobs and shelter for their children."

Rowe has seen situations where there are as many at 13 people in a home because adult children -- and their children -- have moved into the home of an older relative.

"If you have a job, you're blessed. If your children have jobs, you're blessed that they have jobs and haven't moved in with you," Rowe said.