Editor’s Note: Grace College professor of English and Journalism Dr. Paulette Sauders’ senior journalism majors wrote investigative pieces for their senior papers. Student Carolina Keegan wrote about homelessness in Kosciusko County. This is the third in her five-part series.
Seventy-five percent of poverty is generational, Eric Lane, executive director of Fellowship Missions, said.
“We are trying to break cycles,” he said. “Our hope and desire is that we can be that cycle breaker. At the same time, we’ve had two different families and three generations of both at the same time.”
Some people don’t know how to break the cycle on their own, he said. This leads to them falling into one of four different classifications of homelessness. The four classifications that the Warsaw Housing Authority follows are:
? Chronic homelessness
? Episodic homelessness
? Transitional homelessness
? Hidden homelessness
Pam Kennedy, executive director of Warsaw Housing Authority, described each type of homelessness:
? Chronic: homelessness for a year or more, or has been homeless four different times in the past three years.
? Episodic: defines the experience of three different episodes of homelessness in the previous year.
? Transitional: temporary, one-time stay at a shelter or at a temporary housing system.
? Hidden: the technical term for couch surfing, which refers to an individual moving from house to house and sleeping on a friend or family member’s couch.
“The population has completely changed in 35 years,” Kennedy said. Young women and children were once the most common demographic that Kennedy saw, she said, but now she encounters people who are between the ages of 45 and 50 or disabled individuals.
“In most cases, there was a traumatic experience,” Kennedy said, describing the different influences on homelessness. The trauma experienced could lead to drug addiction or alcoholism, mental health issues and many other things, she said.
The death of a spouse after both have retired is one factor of housing difficulties Kennedy sees because all the costs associated with the death of a loved one use up most of their resources, she said. Addiction and bad relationships are other common occurrences that she sees.
Barb, whose real name is not being disclosed for safety and privacy reasons, is living at the Beaman Home.
“I got out of a very abusive relationship in September and I’ve been looking for a job,” she said. “In my experience, a lot of people aren't really necessarily willing to help themselves; you've got to put in work yourself; you can’t just rely on somebody to just do everything for you and get you a place.”
