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News 25 WEHT

Destroyed Building Brings New Attention to Homeless

Dated: 06/13/2007 16:38; Updated: 06/14/2007 00:05:51   story by: Alan Cavanna

EVANSVILLE - The multi-colored building at Third and Court was engulfed in black smoke Tuesday. The morning after, the flames are gone, but new signs are up...deeming the building 'unsafe' and ready for demolition.

By all accounts, the building had become and overnight rest-stop for the homeless. But just blocks away, there's a men's shelter. So why would anyone choose to stay a vacant building when they can stay in a shelter? Shelter officials say even during the summer, space is an issue.

"We're full every night," United Caring Shelter Executive Director Kerri Zeien said, adding, "We sleep 60 men here and we're at full capacity. We also have rules we have to enforce ,and we have people who don't want to follow those rules."

Zeien said she was well aware of the homeless using the burnt-down building for shelter, but she's not the only one. South Sector Police Officers tell me they made frequent runs to the building. They told us the owner boarded the building up numerous times and even put it on a special 'No Trespassing' list that police keep tabs on.

Officer Billy Bolin says police have cited people in the building for trespassing, but admits that won't always prevent someone from coming back.

We asked, "Can something more be done to keep people out of vacant homes?"

"Down there," Officer Billy Bolin replied, "the owner was doing all he could do, boarding it up, tightly securing the building. But people can break into anything they want. And when people have a will to do something, they're going to find a way to get in."

NEWS 25 Learns Cuts In Federal Funding Hinder Fight Against Homelessness

Dated: 04/24/2007 17:32  story by: Alan Cavanna

EVANSVILLE, IN - NEWS 25 discovered cuts in federal funding are hurting efforts to help the homeless in the Evansville area.

More than 400 people are looking for a shelter to sleep in every night, one-third of them are children.

The answer is to try to create affordable housing, but this year, NEWS 25 learned the money pot to get the job done is shrinking.

Two years ago, Aurora Inc. and other Evansville groups invested in a 10-year city/county plan to end homeless in the area. However, two years ago federal funding was more plentiful.

In 2005, Indiana received more than 12 million dollars in federal money.  Two years later, just more than 3.5 million.

Kat Isbell from Aurora said plans to supply 20 permanent homes for the homeless are now on hold.

"That project was not funded, so that means those houses we were trying to provide won't happen. But we are going to try again," Isbell said.

Isbell said the amount of federal money isn't changing. The money just isn't going to Indiana. She said federal money is going to states trying to fight individual, chronic homelessness.

In Evansville, Isbell said, "The majority of folks we are seeing here tend to be families; families with children."

Isbell said the region and the state can help themselves out by doing a better job of "showing off" their efforts. The more they can show is being done, the better the chance is of getting money.

Until then, Isbell said the work continues.

"While we try to address family homelessness, we have to look for other sources of funding and not put all our eggs in the basket of HUD funds," said Isbell.
 

Though, Isbell said citizens can help in the efforts to get federal money. She said every hour put in by volunteers equals ten dollars in "donated" time.

The more money that's raised, the higher the chances of getting the federal funds back.

A New Strategy To End Homelessness
story by: Emily Zander

EVANSVILLE - It's called the Discharge Policy. It's part of a ten-year plan to end homelessness in Evansville. To get a close look at the problem here, NEWS 25 met with people who work on projects like this, run shelters, and even those who are homeless.

The homeless are easy to forget, but steadily growing in numbers in Evansville.

"Homelessness here in Evansville has grown enormously. People don't realize how many homeless people there are here in Evansville," Ron Ritter said.

Ritter used to be homeless but now volunteers to help others at the United Caring Shelter, the place that helped him get back on his feet.

The shelter is at full capacity every night, even having to turn away about ten men per night.

"A lot of them are coming from hospitals, jails, we get letters, phone calls, people at our doorstep that are from prisons and they've been released from there with nowhere to go," Executive Director Kerri Zeien said.

NEWS 25 wanted to know more about the Commission on Homelessness Discharge Policy so we went to Aurora. It offers outreach services to people out on the street and no where to go.

"We certainly see it's one of the root causes. The beauty about Destination: Home is that it looks at the root causes of homelessness. It will definitely address one segment of the population," Hayes said.

Aurora tells NEWS 25 four hundred people a night stay in a shelter somewhere in Evansville. It estimates 30 to 40 people stay in an unlivable place like a tent or car each night.