by Rachel Williams
Faculty, staff and students from the University of West Georgia attended a summit on Tuesday, January 28, to learn about helping local homeless families. The Carrollton Homeless Summit was held at Tabernacle Baptist Church at 9 a.m. Kim Jones, the president of the Community Foundation of West Georgia, helped to create and coordinate the event.
“Unfortunately, homelessness is a real challenge to our community,” Kim says. “Currently, there are 750 documented homeless people in our community. Of those, 642 are children. Right now in Georgia, the average age of a homeless person is 9 years old. We have more than 100 pre-K and kindergarten children who are homeless. I’m sorry, no 5-year-old should have to worry where they’re laying their head tonight. That should be something we, as a community, do not tolerate. No child should have to worry about where their next meal is coming from.”
After the opening by Kim, an attendee recounted her experience growing up homeless due to her mother’s cancer. Although living in a shelter was extremely difficult, she and her sister graduated as salutatorian and valedictorian of their high school. Her younger sister even became dual-enrolled at Clayton State University before she graduated, and she managed to make straight A’s. She now attends UWG and her sister is currently a student at Spelman College. Both young women are on track to graduate from their respective institutions.
Next, a gentleman shared his story of becoming homeless after winning $5 million in 2008. His windfall led to addiction, and he eventually became homeless due to substance abuse. Thanks to the “shelter plus care” program for homeless individuals with mental illness, he was able to get back on his feet and stay sober for almost two years.
“I would venture, if we’re being honest, most of us are one bump in the road away from being homeless ourselves,” Kim suggests. “The working poor constitute a large portion of the homeless or people in danger of being homeless. Difficult choices must be made between housing, food, childcare and education. Often it is housing which absorbs a high proportion of that income, and it must be dropped. Most homeless are working and underemployed; they work very hard for what little they receive. A family must earn $15.18 an hour just to afford a two-bedroom apartment in Carrollton, which is about $500 a month—and that does not include groceries, transportation or utility bills. People become homeless due to foreclosure, lack of affordable housing, a traumatic experience, poverty, unemployment, domestic violence, natural disasters and disabilities. Can we agree that a shared vision for our community is that every member has some form of safe shelter, so that homelessness is a rare occurrence?”
After an hour of speakers, the summit split into three tracks: emergency housing, transitional housing and preventing homelessness. Government employees, police officers, social workers and religious leaders led panels addressing each of the areas of concern. In addition to concerned UWG faculty and local community members, many UWG students were in the audience and even volunteered for the event.
“I went to the summit to learn more about the homeless in Carrollton and the resources that are available to them,” explains Leah Cormany, a UWG graduate counseling student who attended the summit. “I felt it was important to have a community-wide meeting. Members from different parts of the community were able to come together and bounce ideas off each other, improving what is already in place and also come up with new solutions. I learned a lot. For example, I learned that a new men’s-only homeless shelter was opened recently. I also learned that many of the community’s churches and youth want to help as much as they can, and that the police force in Carrollton goes above and beyond to help those in need.”
