The meeting room at the EAMC Education Center was recently filled to capacity as people stood along the walls or sat in the floor to be part of a conversation, the topic of which affects many lives.
They were there to discuss the new face of homelessness.
“It’s not the person under the bridge anymore. It’s affecting all walks of life,” said Jean Causey, one of the meeting organizers. “That’s the message we want to get out: that it’s affecting all walks of life, there’s a need, and the fact that it’s affecting our entire community.”
With Selena Daniel, owner/broker of Associated Realty, Causey organized a meeting for the public to talk about homelessness in Lee County and what can be done to combat the issue.
Causey and Daniel led the discussion with a group of panelists consisting of Marty Nelson, disaster program manager for the American Red Cross; Becky Benton, executive director of United Way of Lee County; Don Sledge from Harvest Evangelism; Carole Zugazaga, associate professor of social work and a department chair at Auburn University; and Nolan Torbert, bishop at True Deliverance Holiness Church in Auburn.
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Each panelist discussed the resources and experiences his or her respective organization has had with assisting homeless members of the community. Afterward, members of the public at the meeting shared what they knew and could offer to the cause.
“Basically, this is making the community aware of this horrible situation,” Daniel said. “Sometimes, things happen because people don’t know they’re happening. It’s to bring awareness to the community of the dire need for assistance for these people.”
New faces
Some of the new faces of homelessness in Lee County are elderly residents whose Social Security checks are not enough to cover the cost of rent, medications, groceries, and other expenses each month, Causey explained. Others are college students who cannot afford rent and utilities, in addition to food, tuition and fees.
“And not only those persons,” Daniel said. “It could happen to either one of us with the snap of a finger. People who lose jobs; somebody who has lost a wage-earner.”
From that meeting, the One Voice Shelter Coalition was born. Multiple committees took shape, focusing on different aspects of the issue. There are committees for prayer, finance, research, outreach, construction and Auburn University students.
“The outcome is a commitment to the community to address this need by getting involved and finding locations for shelter, and to seek donations of financial help, donations of land or old houses and apartments that we can refurbish,” Causey said.
“Rebuilding Lee County will partner with us to help with repairs. We will help Harvest Evangelism repair His Place building in Opelika, and that building will be turned into a men’s shelter. Our immediate concern is the women living in their cars with children.”
Anyone interested in joining a committee and volunteering can contact Causey at 334-749-5264.
“The new face of homelessness is the mother living out of her car, with two children,” Causey said. “The senior citizen who has been living in her car for two years. There’s the student in school at Auburn who’s staying in the woods, in a tent – not just one, but many. Those are the new faces. To let this go, the people who are needing shelter, is to let our community go.”
