Jackson Free Press

Addressing homelessness in Jackson will require the active participation of communities, especially in the areas near downtown, the city's Homeless Program Coordinator Heather Ivery said today.

Speaking to an audience at Koinonia Coffee House's Friday Forum, Ivery said that, to be effective, social services must meet the homeless where they are. A large portion of the city's roughly 700 homeless men and women stay close to the area around Koinonia, west of downtown Jackson, near Poindexter Park and several agencies serving the homeless, including the Gateway Mission and Stewpot Community Services.

"In order to do something about our homelessness issue, we have to be proactive," Ivery told the crowd. "They're not going to move. If we move the shelters to another part of town they're not going to go there."

Ivery offered an outline of the city's 10-year plan to end homelessness, which the City Council adopted in Aug. 2006. The plan has four overall priorities: providing permanent housing for the city's "chronically homeless," connecting the homeless with services that will help get them out of homelessness, improving the network of services for the mentally ill and engaging community members.

Permanent housing is an especially important arm of the plan, Ivery said, because it gives homeless people stability and safety as they work through whatever other issues contribute to their homelessness. A permanent home allows chronically homeless people to build relationships and offers a central location for social service providers.

"I agree that other parts of town need to help us out, but we need to have that attitude in our mind that we need to do something about it ourselves," Ivery said. "We've got to figure out what we're going to do together."

As an example of a community-based approach to homelessness, Ivery offered the Meadowbrook Church of Christ's Crossover Ministry. The ministry provides temporary housing, financial support and other help to homeless people "in transition." Crucially, the Crossover Ministry focuses on building relationship with participants, which increases the likelihood that the previously homeless will retain jobs and housing.

Read the Jackson Free Press cover story "Trust In Me" by reporter Ward Schaefer about the issue of homelessness in Jackson.

Previous Comments

ID

157726

Comment

This is a pervasive issue which has been contributed to in many ways by those seeking to "help". I do not believe that the homeless population will not migrate to services offered in other parts of the city. It's my honest opinion services are offered in specific parts of the city to insure this population doesn't migrate.

Author

BuyJxn

Date

2010-05-09T10:55:13-06:00