Cherry Street Mission hosts conversations about homelessness with community on World Homeless Day
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Homelessness is something people often avoid talking about.
Ann Ebbert, CEO of Cherry Street Mission, said having conversations about homelessness can be scary, uncomfortable and sometimes ugly.
“I think the most important thing to recognize for all of us is that that person, given the right atmosphere, probably doesn’t look any different than you and I,” Ebbert said.
That’s part of the reason why Ebbert sat down with people in the community on World Homeless Day to start having conversations to reduce stigmas and increase awareness. WTOL 11 sat down with Ebbert for 20 minutes to discuss the stigmas and what challenges the community is currently dealing with.
Ebbert said by ignoring homelessness or avoiding conversations, change isn’t made. She said if anything, it can make things worse.
She said most people are just one unexpected expense away from becoming homeless.
“They say nationally, 60% of us have less than $1,000 in a savings account,” Ebbert said. “If you think about a $1,000 expense, it’s easy to think about a $1,000 expense.”
Ebbert said this could be a car issue, a furnace going out or a trip to an emergency room. She said it’s worse during a time of inflation. She said people have more expensive grocery bills and are dealing with housing issues.
Issues like these are impacting everyone, but especially the elderly, Ebbert said. She said people 65 and older are the largest growing population of people experiencing homelessness. She said they are often on fixed incomes and any sort of increase in expenses can alter their ability to make ends meet.
Cherry Street Mission has been at 98% to 100% capacity since July. Resources have been more strained with funding cuts and other organizations relying on Cherry Street to help people.
But Ebbert said she worries as we move into the colder months, when even more people seek help.
“Our whole network of providers is having conversations with people, with businesses in this area, with our city, with our county, and saying, ‘hey, we’re going to have to have some kind of alternative scenario for individuals to get out of this winter,'” Ebbert said.
People often think the solution is having people who are experiencing homelessness is to get a job, but Ebbert said it isn’t that simple.
“This is not a ‘go get a job’ issue,” she said. “Probably 30% to 35% of our guests that live at our shelter have a full-time job.”
According to Ebbert, there’s no one solution to homelessness, but focusing on policies that make resources more available, addressing housing issues and having more conversations are steps in the right direction.