The Homeless in the Bon Air Area Appear to be Increasing and Settling in. What are our options? An Invitation to Discussion

 

As I have said before, I am a social worker by training and trade. I have some sympathy to the homeless population.   I must empathize the word "some."

In a grand sense, you would think that people who are down on their luck deserve some mercy.  I again emphasize the word "some." 

I regularly have homeless clients. Many of them are repeaters and even what we call "high-utilizers, " which means they come into the hospital a lot.  I see the same medication non-compliance, substance use, and failure to follow through with services.    

One of the frustrating scenarios is the conversation with a homeless individual who says that they have been banned from all the shelters.  Some have been banned for drugs and alcohol while others have been banned for fighting. Some say that they do not want to stay in the shelters because they don't like "rules." I cannot make them get along or follow rules.  

There is a tendency for those who do not want to live in the shelters and be able to drink alcohol when they want to is to go camping and be squatters. I have known a few clients to say that they "camp."  

Many of my homeless clients state that they want help getting housing, which is something we do not do in general.  

Housing efforts for the homeless are coordinated by the Homeless Coalition that includes Family Health Centers, St John's Men's Center, Wellspring of Kentucky, St Vincent Depaul, Wayside Mission, and the Salvation Army.  They evaluate a person's eligibility using the Service Prioritization Decision Tool (SPDAT).  The SPDAT in essence puts someone in line for grant-based housing, but the list is long. 

However, for those who have disability/SSI, I offer to refer them to a free-standing personal care home or boarding home where they can have room and board and get their personal needs met. The cost is that they have to make the home the payee for their check, and 99 percent say that they won't do that.  They want to be captain of their leaking ship.  I get the control issue,  We all want to be in control, which brings me to the homeless squatter camp in the public right of way at the Bardstown Rd-Watterson Expressway Interchange. 

There have been squatter camps in at least three places: 1) behind the Pets Palace/Thorntons, 2) along Beargrass Creek, and 3) on the island of the eastbound entrance to the Watterson.   Typically homeless camps are somewhat out of the public eye in some kind of cover and the one on the island was somewhat atypical because it was brazenly out in the open.  

Now they are on the entrance off of the eastbound Watterson.  This camp seems a little bigger and of course, it is out in the open (see the above picture). At this point, the homeless are more or less continuing their open panhandling activities. I have had my question as to how much they are related to drug-activities in the neighborhood given that there was an overdose death on November 17, 2020, at a storage facility in the 3400 block of Bardstown Rd. 

The dance or tension here is being concerned about their welfare but also about the aesthetic of our neighborhood.  The squatter camp is an eyesore but they are also human beings.   However, they essentially are flaunting their squatting in a public right of way where pedestrians are not allowed . . . in a dangerous place to boot. 

Bluntly, to me, the camp in its form does not represent survival. (It should, but it doesn't.) The continued panhandling on the medians despite LMPD repeatedly telling the homeless that it is illegal is anti-social behavior.  It is all disruptive behavior in Bon Air and on its doorstep.

The last site of disruptive behavior in the Bon Air Neighborhood was the Economy Inn, now called "Budgetel."  In a grand sense, the Michigan-based owners have done enough to squash the behavior as there are far fewer police reports.  

I would say that it is not a crisis yet.  However, if we see an uptick in crimes and police reports  related to the homeless we will be on the verge of one. 

What should the neighborhood's response to these people be?  Do we embrace their need or do we work to move them out?   What are our options?   I am open to starting a discussion.