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By the numbers
A census of Roanoke’s homeless population found 566 people during a week in January. That’s a 363 percent increase from 20 years ago. A survey of 333 of the homeless people counted revealed the following:- 73 percent had been in the Roanoke Valley for more than six months.
- 64 percent were male, 55 percent were white and 35 percent were black.
- 34 percent had children with them at the time of the survey.
- 70 percent were receiving mental health treatment or had in the past.
- 20 percent were veterans.
- 49 percent had slept in a homeless shelter the night before.
- 69 percent had been homeless for less than a year.
- 44 percent had never been homeless before.
- 26 percent said they were homeless because they couldn’t pay rent.
- 46 percent had received treatment for alcohol abuse.
- 34 percent had a high school education or higher.
- 26 percent were receiving food stamps.
- 23 percent were employed full-time44 percent were actively looking for work.
Source: Roanoke Valley Alleghany Regional Advisory Council on Homelessness
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Whether they carry backpacks, push shopping carts, loiter on sidewalks or sleep on benches, Roanoke's homeless have long been most conspicuous in the downtown area.
But lately, their presence has become more of an issue.
Roanoke City Council members wondered aloud last month if the city is luring the homeless from surrounding areas by providing too many services. The catalyst for the discussion was a new report showing a 363 percent increase in the annual homeless head count over the past two decades.
That discussion did two things: It galled some people who said the comments lacked compassion, and it led to the first in a series of meetings between city administrators and the nonprofit agencies and ministries that serve the homeless.
Later this week, Mayor Nelson Harris will pitch a regional, 10-year plan to end homelessness.
So why is a problem that has existed for decades suddenly getting so much attention?
Some advocates for the homeless say that as more people move into luxury condominiums downtown, the city is becoming less tolerant of the homeless in the area. An effort to drive them away, the theory goes, could also be linked to the upcoming opening of the new art museum and other downtown improvements aimed at making the City Market even more of a destination for residents and tourists alike.
"Roanoke is trying to get all gussied up, and I think that is great," said Lauren Ellerman, a lawyer who volunteers at the Rescue Mission and is a board member at RAM House.
"But that doesn't mean we have to marginalize the people who need our help and push them to the side."
Although homelessness is a regional problem, downtown provides the window through which it's seen by many in the Roanoke Valley. Drawn to the area by nearby emergency shelters and soup kitchens, the homeless seem to attract the most attention when contrasted against well-dressed workers and well-heeled shoppers.
Harris said any solution will require more than an us-versus-them approach.
"I certainly don't want as mayor to create the perception that because the art museum is opening or because we have wealthy people living downtown, all of a sudden we have an interest in the homeless downtown and getting them out," Harris said.
"To have this kind of thing of, 'We only want downtown to be for the business people and upper-income residents,' that kind of thing -- I think that once you really peel the onion and begin to understand the causes of homelessness, I think people perhaps would be willing to view those who find themselves homeless in perhaps a different light."
'Too daggone nice'
On the night of Jan. 25, a count of the homeless people in Roanoke came to 566. That's a 363 percent increase over 20 years ago, according to a report prepared by the Roanoke Valley Alleghany Regional Advisory Council on Homelessness.
When the numbers were presented to the city council last month, some members voiced concerns about homeless people from out of town who are drawn to Roanoke by the Rescue Mission, RAM House and an array of other services for the needy.
"It's about the fact that we're letting people come here because we're too daggone nice," Councilman Bev Fitzpatrick said.
Harris agreed that providing more services is a "no-win spiral" that will only attract more of the homeless from surrounding localities.
Another concern was the so-called daily "migration" of homeless people who walk through downtown to get from the Rescue Mission, a night shelter, to RAM House, which provides day services.
The comments did not go over well with Debbie Denison, executive director of Roanoke Area Ministries, which runs the RAM House.
"There was no compassion shown," Denison said.
"I'm not going to turn my back when someone comes to me and needs clothes on their back or food to eat, regardless of where they are from."
Four days after the discussion by the council, City Manager Darlene Burcham sent letters to Denison and about a dozen other organizations that serve the homeless. The letter suggested a meeting to discuss "the issue of homeless activity in the city and the unintended consequences that the current delivery system creates for our downtown."
About 25 people showed up for the Nov. 27 meeting, which The Roanoke Times was not allowed to attend.
A few suggestions were made -- among them creating a better day facility for the homeless and a central clearinghouse for people to go to for services -- but for the most part the meeting served as the starting point for a continued discussion.
"I don't believe the solutions to community problems rest on the doorsteps to city hall," Burcham said in explaining why she called for the dialogue. "I believe the solutions to community problems rest in the community."
Ted Edlich, president of Total Action Against Poverty, said the meeting gave providers a chance to explain the complexity of homelessness and how it has changed over the years. Although single men used to make up the vast majority of the homeless population, he said, families and single women with children are now much more affected. Mental illness is also seen as more of an issue.
"I think the goal, as I understood it, was we wanted to see how all of us can work together and help folks transition out of homelessness," Edlich said.
Part of the trick is to avoid stereotypes.
"Not every street person is homeless; not every homeless person is a street person," said Daren Gunter, who attended the meeting as executive director of TRUST House.
More homeless arrested
Not so long ago, the people who made their home in downtown Roanoke were likely to do so in an alley or an abandoned building. Now, they're moving into comfortable apartments and posh condos with cityscape views.
About 350 people live in the downtown area. That's at least twice the number from three years ago, said Kathy Kinsey, marketing and business recruitment manager for Downtown Roanoke Inc.
As more people call the area home, it's likely that more are calling the police about the homeless.
Police do not keep track of complaints about transients in the area. But the president of the newly formed Downtown Neighborhood Watch said it's only logical to assume that the increased population has led to more calls about crime and quality-of-life issues such as loitering and panhandling.
"Businesses that go home at six o'clock aren't going to be quite as aware of what's going on as the residents who are around all the time," Suzun Hughes said.
At the same time Roanoke's downtown population was growing, so was the number of arrests of the homeless.
In 2005, police made 560 arrests citywide of people who listed their address as a homeless shelter or transient, according to Roanoke Police Department spokeswoman Aisha Johnson. In 2006, there were 704 such arrests. And through the first week of December, this year's tally is 886.
Downtown, arrests rose from 150 to 235 during the same time period. The numbers do not indicate how many of the arrests involved repeat offenders.
Despite the increase, few people are arguing that downtown is unsafe. According to Johnson, the most common charges against the homeless are for alcohol violations, trespassing and soliciting money.
Panhandling has long been a concern of downtown merchants who fear that unsavory-looking regulars on the market will scare their customers away.
Over the years, those who take a clean-up-the-market approach have counted some accomplishments. Outdoor benches that attract the homeless have been removed. The downtown state alcohol store was closed. And law enforcement has become more involved -- although sometimes in a way that has drawn criticism for selective enforcement of laws that prohibit sleeping on benches and sitting on the concrete tables used by the market vendors.
The problem as Doug Waters sees it is that no loitering charge can be applied to people who sit or stand on sidewalks for hours, sometimes with their belongings spread out around them.
"I think there ought to be some serious thought to giving the police some power to keep people either moving along or to prevent them from making an untidy home on the sidewalks," said Waters, chairman of DRI's downtown residents committee.
But it's not the goal of DRI to purge the market of any one group, Kinsey said.
"Anytime you have diversity, that's a good thing and a healthy thing," she said. "And our downtown is no different."
At the same time, she said, those who remember the days when the City Market was a crime-ridden district populated by derelicts, prostitutes and their customers are determined not to backslide.
"There's no utopia," Kinsey said. "But we will never stop trying to make ourselves better."
Still, critics of the city's most recent stand on homelessness say it seems too focused on one area.
"Why is it just the market area?" Denison asked. "Is the market area the only place in the valley where we have problems with the homeless? ... There are homeless people all over the Roanoke Valley, not just downtown."
