David Webber, Columbia MISSOURIAN May 14, 2022
Homelessness is an all-year thing, but spring brings a relief knowing men and women who are without stable housing made it through winter. I remember in 2009, at Missouri United Methodist Church, there was a short impromptu prayer service to mark the successful season of what became Room at the Inn.
A homeless woman, Liza, who I have seen on the streets within the past year, stood up and spoke strongly and eloquently, thanking the volunteers who helped that year see “that we didn’t lose anyone this winter.”
To the best of my knowledge, “we didn’t lose anyone this winter” thanks to the staff and volunteers at Loaves and Fishes, Turning Point, Harbor House, and Room at the Inn but also to an informal network of volunteers that now goes by the name CoMo Mobile Soup Kitchen.
The CoMo Mobile group pretty much staffed the emergency shelter at Wabash Station, caring for the 15 to 30 people who stayed inside Wabash during the extreme cold and about 10 people currently in that area.
CoMo Mobile Soup Kitchen also regularly serves food and provides necessities to several homeless camps around Columbia where they serve 65 to 80 people per day at least twice a week.
Last week at Loaves and Fishes I helped a guest whom I will call Eddie re-wrap his frostbitten fingers that had been treated and were waiting to be partially amputated.
When we finished with the gauze and tape, I asked him if I could take a photo to post on social media. He approved. I’m glad I did.
I was in a similar situation in March 2020, when I was walking around downtown and I came upon a guy I will call Dan who showed me his frostbitten, damaged, toeless foot that had just received amputation.
I learned some details of gangrene and infections. I asked for permission to take a photo. He approved, but I quickly had second thoughts and withdrew my request because I felt it was an invasion of personal boundaries.
Over those two years I regretted passing up the opportunity to share publicly what frostbite does to some of Columbia’s homeless people.
When I posted a photo of Eddie’s damaged fingers on Facebook, immediately I received a response from a person active in the CoMo Mobile Soup Kitchen group, telling me they have a medical team who had treated him previously and would follow up with him after amputation. Indeed, they did follow up a few days ago.
A second benefit of posting the photo of Eddie’s fingers is informing Columbia about issues the homeless face.
Often citizens think that once a program is started, the problem is solved. Several people reacted saying, “I thought you provided gloves and handwarmers.”
Another said, “Maybe Wabash should be open more.” We often see panhandlers and homeless people waiting at Wilkes Boulevard Methodist Church for Turning Point and Loaves and Fishes, but few directly see people experiencing a drug or alcohol episode. Same with frostbite and insect bites.
Loaves and Fishes is a loosely knit group of volunteers who prepare and distribute an evening meal in the cold, in the rain or in the 95-degree heat 364 days a year.
There were few screw-ups during the pandemic.
I’ve talked often with a guy I met at Loaves and Fishes, I’ll call him Tim, who should have had better housing for at least seven years, but he couldn’t quite figure out how to jump through the hoops. He is headed toward better housing.
Homeless and housing caseworkers can recite program lingo and figures, but it doesn’t always get through to the right person at the right time.
All I did was reinforce a family member’s suggestion of who he should talk with. It was so simple, but it made a difference.
Several homeless service groups let by Randy Cole of the Columbia Housing Authority are currently preparing a plan to use federal money for an emergency shelter of one form or another.
We need suitable, well-located facilities to serve as a day center, soup kitchen, and emergency shelter. We also need more public hygiene facilities downtown and sanctioned campsites for homeless citizen who don’t want to go to shelters for one reason or another.
Whatever plans for future homeless services develop in deciding how to allocate $25 million of American Recovery Plan Act (ARPA) funding, it is essential that volunteer opportunities and responsibilities be maintained.
Caring for the homeless and the hungry is a fundamental tenet of most Americans’ religious backgrounds and should not be outsourced to publicly funded agencies.
Caring for the homeless and hungry expands ordinary citizens’ understanding of what some people end up without housing to begin with.
Due to housing shortages and loss of low skill jobs, homelessness will always be with us despite admirable attempts at reducing addictions, eliminating family instability, providing medical services, and organizing job training.
In fact, because of national changes, I expect Boone County homelessness will probably be higher 2025 than it currently is. We need a variety of shelters (e.g. RATI, sanctioned campaign, small houses), but we also need groups of caring volunteers to provide and share food and to interact with homeless people in Columbia.
David Webber joined the MU Political Science Department in 1986 and wrote his first column for the Missourian in 1994. He can be reached at Webberd@missouri.edu.