ANALYSIS: Addressing homelessness at the train station
by Martin Davis
Certain issues are intractable - homelessness, unfortunately, is one of those.
The homeless population, like the approaches to helping them, are varied. In Fredericksburg, we are fortunate to have a city leadership committed to addressing the issue, and nonprofit leaders who share that commitment.
From Micah Ministries, to the Continuum of Care and the Thurman Brisben Center, our small city is bringing significant resources to bear to help those who find themselves without permanent housing.
Despite their best efforts, however, there are going to be times when the difficult realities of dealing with the homeless are going to surface.
In recent weeks, we have been made aware of commuters interacting regularly with homeless people who are sleeping on the steps leading to the platforms at the train station, or on the platform itself.
While homeless people sleeping at the train station is not a new phenomenon, their visibility has become more pronounced of late. And the work being done to shore up the platform may well be responsible for this uptick.
“The construction has moved some of the homeless,” says Chip Boyles, executive director and FOIA officer of the George Washington Regional Commission, whose offices are right next to the work being done.
In particular, a tree line that was removed by the workers may be responsible for displacing people who have been living among them.
“We were aware of some of the homeless sleeping in the tree line on the old platform,” Boyles said, “so people have just moved who were more hidden [by those trees] into a more visible area.”
Interactions with the public
In the light of day during normal business hours, encounters with homeless people are less likely to unsettle people not accustomed to interacting with them. But some may find encountering the homeless in the predawn hours at the train station more unsettling.
That was the feeling of one commuter who reached out to F2S to express concern about several encounters she has had in recent weeks.
Speaking of her trek from the parking lot at the corner of Caroline and Frederick streets up the steps to the platform, she described “one man sprawled across steps” and blocking her access to platform.
That instance is not an isolated one. She has described other episodes encountering people on the platform benches, in the trees along the platform, and at the nearby bus stop.
“My concern,” she told F2S, “is both safety, and that this is not the place for them to be camping.”
Like Boyles, this individual - who did not want to be named in the story - has noticed the homeless’ presence more over the past couple of months.
“I’ve seen the same guy for at least two solid months,” she said.
Meghann Cotter, Micah Ministries’ Executive Servant-Leader, suggested that some of the people commuters are encountering may be of a more-transient nature.
“I’ve been hearing about people who come through on the train that may be here a day for so, but don’t stay.”
Dealing with the problem
Individuals like Cori Blanch, owner of Curitiba Art Cafe on Caroline Street, who encounter the homeless regularly downtown and know the population, stress that these people as a population are safe to be around.
This is true because Fredericksburg’s homeless population is small enough that most of the displaced people individuals are likely to encounter can and are known by those in the city engaged with this population. That’s a credit to the hard work of the city and people like Cotter and Blanch.
At the same time, however, we can’t possibly know all the homeless, like those who may come via train for short periods, in our community. So safety is an issue we must be aware of and take seriously.
Most people do not have Blanch’s or Cotter’s experience with the homeless, and they are understandably nervous when encountering this population - especially in the predawn hours at the train station.
And respecting those concerns is important in this discussion.
“We have a responsibility to provide a safe environment for the public,” says city council member Matt Kelly, but how to do that is problematic.
When people encounter a disturbing situation, their first reaction is to call police. That’s reasonable, because the police stand on the front lines and are charged with addressing immediate concerns. But they are not a long-term solution to the homeless issue.
“Homelessness is a complex community issue that will not be solved by law enforcement,” Kelly continued.
So what do we do?
One idea being discussed is the possibility of hiring a street outreach specialist. This would be someone trained to helped homeless people find the support they need, and would also be able to respond to situations when people encounter the homeless and either feel unsafe and want some support, and/or want to assist an individual with finding services.
“When incidents occur,” Kelly said, “an outreach specialist can determine the underlying issues and identify resources that can help ensure similar incidents do not occur again.”
It’s a step in the right direction, but finding the funding to hire this individual is complicating the process.
Perhaps there’s an intermediate step the city could consider, however.
Charlottesville’s Ambassadors
City leaders might also want to look to our neighbors in Charlottesville.
Faced with a growing number of safety problems in and around the UVA Corner, the university launched the Ambassadors Program. Ambassadors patrol the Corner and proactively “provide personal safety escorts and make requests for medical and police assistance on behalf of our community members.”
Ambassadors are not armed, but rather serve as a second set of eyes and ears that can alert authorities when necessary, and provide support for visitors and students.
Those selected for the program are paid a modest wage of $12 - $14 per hour, keeping program costs low.
So popular has the program become, that the Ambassadors program has been expanded to also cover the downtown mall and other city streets.
The homeless deserve our respect and all the help that we can give them.
And citizens who frequent downtown deserve to feel safe in their environment - especially when traveling to and from work during hours of the day when the sun has yet to rise, or has already set.
A simple program like the Ambassadors, may be just the ticket that helps everyone interact better in our vibrant downtown area.
Perhaps we should consider how we allocate resources. Micah, for instance, does not classify the homeless population into the deserving poor and the undeserving poor. They serve everyone in need. Others do not serve those they consider the undeserving poor - people who are disruptive, for instance - and the City Council goes along with that, making it official. Perhaps the resources going to entities that will only serve the "deserving" poor can be used for a street ambassador. There are certainly homeless sleeping openly around town, not just at the station.