'They don't have any other options:' Outreach workers attempt to count unsheltered homeless population

LORAIN — Lorain's south side looked like a snow globe as Rebecca Haywood drove through darkened streets late Tuesday evening. A radio station playing pop hits from the 1970s and 80s filtered through the speakers as she crossed into Sheffield Township, passing a sprawling apartment complex and down a slick roadway behind the Mental Health, Addiction and Recovery Services Board building. She backed into a spot in the empty lot, switching off the SUV as a Whitney Houston song ended. The glow from the lot's overhead lights faded fast as three volunteers, with Haywood at the lead, navigated a path into a copse of trees behind the building. Knee-high snow drifts gave way to a boot-worn path as flashlight beams bounced in the night before hitting a clearing with snow-covered tents nestled in the brush. "Outreach! PATH! Is anyone there?" called Kameela Shareff, Neighborhood Alliance's substance use disorder specialist. Tyler Thompson, 27, answered. Outreach The group of tents behind the social service agency was the first stop for this year's point-in-time count of unsheltered homeless in Lorain County, part of an annual census of men and women sleeping in tents, abandoned buildings and other secluded places outside of the shelter system. Normally completed in the last week of January, the point-in-time count helps estimate the number of people experiencing homelessness on a single night. A state formula, including a margin of error, helps calculate the number of sheltered and unsheltered individuals in a county to better determine service needs and funding opportunities. Last year, Lorain County's count found 11 unsheltered individuals and 182 in shelter, according to the Coalition on Homelessness and Housing in Ohio. Across the state, more than 11,000 people experienced homelessness during that period, with the bulk in shelters. Haywood, chief of staff for Neighborhood Alliance, led one of the four groups scattered across Lorain County from 8 p.m. Tuesday to midnight, each tasked with checking a list of spaces where homeless individuals may be staying on the frigid winter night. That list is designated by the state, with a mix of locations known to Neighborhood Alliance's Projects for Assistance in Transition from Homelessness, or PATH, outreach team, and other areas considered high or low probability for homeless encampments based on prior year's counts. "When it's nice weather, there's not that factor of 'I might freeze to death out here.' But when it gets to be this cold, people find resources, they find family or friends, they start couch surfing," Haywood said. "This is what the state considers to be a true count of who is left outside because, really, they don't have any other option but to be where they are." When Thompson answered volunteers' calls, he was inside a family-sized blue tent, a propane heater warming his space. He put his boots on and came outside, zipping his tent back up to keep the heat inside. He cursed at a stray cat that slunk through the deep snow – the animal's claws a hazard for the thin walls of his home – then joined the group to help look for others he knew slept nearby. At one time, Thompson said, eight or nine people stayed in the encampment he lived in, but it dwindled in the winter. "We worry if we're gonna wake up, we worry if we're gonna freeze today," he said. It would not be so bad if he had the right supplies – a generator to keep his phone charged and provide some heat, rather than spending the bulk of his income on propane tanks, he said. "I'm just waiting to hear from New Sunrise Properties," Thompson said, frustrated. "If I got approved, that's literally it. But it seems like they're (messing) around and they got an apartment ready. And then once I get that, the company I'm going through is willing to pay the security deposit, I just need help with the first month's rent." He led the group around the back of the nearby strip mall, an Apples grocery store dominating the space, with empty storefronts scattered around it. Thompson gestured to one of the glass-fronted buildings and wondered why it could not be turned into housing. "Why don't they take this and turn it into something for people that are homeless?" he said. "I'm not gonna lie, there's been nights I thought about breaking in just to stay warm." An older man, known to volunteers only as John, came from a nearby gas station with a box of takeout in hand. He declined to speak to volunteers and instead disappeared inside his own tent. The group checked another known encampment behind the former Gaylord's department store off Elyria Avenue and Henderson Drive, clambering over undisturbed snow drifts to a site with a single large tent, an American flag, plastic tote bins, a grill and shelving stacked with canned goods, all dusted with snow. Again, calls for "Outreach! PATH! Is anyone there?" rang out, but no one answered. Haywood peeked inside the tent, moving piles of blankets to make sure no one was inside. John, as well as Thompson's wife, who was asleep in another tent near his, and Thompson himself were all counted in Tuesday's census – the only three individuals outreach workers made contact with that night. Second chance Back in Haywood's SUV, vintage pop tunes playing in the background, Shareef directed her to the next spot on the group's list, taking them back into Lorain and down Broadway. For individuals like John, who had lived outside more years than not, there can be a breaking point there is no coming back from, Haywood said. "Whether it's a break with reality, mental illness, stress, there's no coming back from it and it really is sad to see someone like John, who's older … This lifestyle will probably be the end for him eventually, because it's just very hard," Haywood said. Haywood and others knew Thompson, who has lived outside off and on since he was a teenager. He was a longtime volunteer at the Salvation Army Corps. in Lorain and Elyria where Haywood and Cassandra Marr, Lorain County continuum of care coordinator, previously worked. "If he gets one good break, he'll be fine," Haywood said of the young man who worked as a diesel mechanic during the day and spent his nights in the tent off state Route 254. "I think I'm more frustrated with the system that he has to be a part of – that's what really gets to me and I think most of us that work in the field." In some ways, it is a system stacked against Thompson, who has a felony trespassing conviction that can make finding housing more difficult, and lasting injuries from a car wreck that can make work harder to find. Marr said Thompson can get frustrated and feel hopeless within that system, which can push him to stay outside rather than seek a shelter bed. That same system is one that has left him waiting for a call for housing for years since he first found himself on the street. Marr and Haywood agreed that they would be happy to see Thompson housed, hopefully sooner rather than later. "When you see him now, overall, he's still hopeful," Haywood said. "He still has an attitude of like, 'I'm close to being housed.'" Contact Carissa Woytach at (440) 329-7245 or cwoytach@chroniclet.com.