Homelessness hits young and old alike

[butterfly77]

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Roger Findley was living in a school bus in the middle of rural Missouri, and he still hadn’t hit rock bottom.



Photo by Parker Eshelman

Army veteran Roger Findley recalls his days living as a homeless man. Veterans make up 12 percent of the country’s homeless population.

It was 2009. He’d lived in the bus for four years and had been homeless even longer.

It had been almost two decades since he left the Army, where he had quickly made rank and won a medal for exceptional physical fitness. Findley served during the final years of the Cold War until 1989, the year the Berlin Wall crumbled.

But alcohol had been chipping away at Findley long before his four-year stint in the Army.

Despite high marks for performance, he said his superiors would routinely order him to seek help for his problem with drinking.

Near the end of his military career, he lost control. After testing positive for cocaine, he was given an “other than honorable” discharge. In the years that


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A DIVERSE POPULATION

The latest point-in-time count in Columbia, conducted last summer, turned up 196 homeless people here, the highest number since summer 2008.

Nationwide, homelessness grew 3 percent from 2008 to 2009, according to the National Alliance to End Homelessness.

With veterans making up 9 percent of the overall population, they’re the most overrepresented homeless subgroup, representing 12 percent of the nation’s homeless, according to a recent report from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.

But families are the fastest-growing segment of the homeless population, a problem exacerbated by a spike in foreclosures, said Steve Hollis, director of Columbia’s Office of Community Services.

More families have taken to doubling up with friends and relatives, he said.

A recent count in Columbia showed 22 residents are living in a doubled-up arrangement, which doesn’t include the 98 Columbia Public Schools students identified as doubling up.

As of January, the school district counted 131 homeless students, and the majority of those, 76 children, are in elementary or preschool.

Harbor House, a Salvation Army-run shelter, has seen a record number of children this winter, peaking at about 18 kids, eight or nine of whom were of elementary age, Mathews said.

Dwayne Polk, a teachers’ aide for the district and dad of four who’s staying at the Harbor House, has been shocked to see so many of his students staying there.

“It’s been a rude awakening,” he said. “I don’t think many people have any idea” of how many hom

[Ferret Annica]

1. I've been homeless and living in my car

I am now in Veteran's section eight housing, or I would still be homeless. It helps ground a person and get them in a modus to work, and better associate with people, thus I really support the model of getting housing first and then working on people's personal issues.

I'm lucky; I don't do drugs, drink, steal or abuse people. I also stayed away from hardcore homeless people who prefer the lifestyle and buy into the self destructive affectations of homelessness.

[butterfly77]

2. I agree...

its stressful just being homeless they don't give a damn!They tell us about housing starts what about low income housing..