Agencies honing in on homeless crisis in St. Joseph

By Jenna Wilson

Cities across the U.S. are feeling the effects of homelessness, and St. Joseph is no exception, which is why agencies across the area are working to find solutions and uplift resources for those in need.

Jodi Flurry, director of community investment for the United Way of Greater St. Joseph, said the increase in street homelessness is not unique to St. Joseph although recently, the city has been feeling the impact.

“The federal government recently released information that showed across the country, homelessness actually increased 12% from the annual point-in-time count conducted in January 2023,” Flurry said. “Which is a pretty significant increase. Unfortunately, St. Joseph has felt that impact and we did see an increase in homelessness in the prior year as well.”

The United Way’s annual numbers for the count of the homeless population won’t be available until later this month, but the main concern, according to St. Joseph Police Chief Paul Luster, is looking for solutions to fix the impact it is having on the community.

“From a law enforcement perspective, we end up spending a lot of resources on the homelessness problem,” he said. “Specifically, more so the visible street homelessness, where they become involved in some of the nuisance crimes like trespassing, loitering, littering, minor stealing and things like that. All of that takes law enforcement resources to manage.”

Trespassing is a big concern for firefighters, who put out more than 100 fires in abandoned buildings in 2023.

“Whether the building is locked or unlocked, if someone wants to make their way in, they’ll find a way,” Henrichson said. “I’m not just singling out the homeless; this could also include people who simply don’t have heat in their homes this time of year. Regardless, once they’re in there, it’s a matter of staying warm and finding a way to do it.”

Henrichson said trying to maintain warmth in a place with no power or heating source usually leads to seeking heat in ways that can be hazardous, like using charcoal and wood.

He said a couple of years ago, a homeless person died after attempting to use their own resources to create heat inside a vacant building, which brought awareness to the dangers of street homelessness for the individual and others.

“Even for the ones who do survive, they’re not going to stick around and tell someone or put the fire out,” Henrichson said. “They get scared and usually run away and the fire ends up getting bigger than it should.”

Flurry said local agencies are hoping to address the homeless crisis by utilizing different resources, including connecting them with agency caseworkers to help them attain stability or offering one-time rent assistance if it’s appropriate.

“The No. 1 thing is, we want to try to prevent somebody from ever becoming homeless,” Flurry said. “Once they enter into that homeless realm, it’s much more expensive to get them housed, and the impact it starts to have for them individually and as a community is much greater.”

Law enforcement is aware that homelessness is causing a community impact and they are working the streets five days out of the week, trying to connect the homeless population with appropriate resources for their situation, such as warming centers and emergency shelters.

“It’s not a problem we’re going to arrest our way out of, by any means,” Luster said. “It’s not illegal to be homeless, so it’s not a total law enforcement issue, which is why we’re taking a more holistic community approach when we’re talking about dealing with this issue.”

For a list of winter warming centers and emergency shelters, visit https://helpmenow.myresourcedirectory.com.