Mike Roth, 49, would like lockers, so he can store his belongings, and a job that pays a decent wage. Carol Bagley, 59, wants eye care. Gregory Jackson, 62, needs many services.
“A shelter would be helpful,” he said, enjoying breakfast at St. Ursula’s Multipurpose Center.
Roth, Bagley and Jackson were just three of the homeless people who turned out Friday for Project Homeless Connect on St. John, an annual event that aims to link the island’s homeless residents with services they need.
Roth and Jackson said they sleep on the street, and Bagley takes shelter in a Coral Bay shanty.
The number of people served at Homeless Connect grows every year, from 22 in 2011 to 43 in 2012 and 63 last year.
Celia Kalousek, director of the St. John Community Foundation, said she thinks the numbers are up because the event is becoming more well known and also because the number of homeless residents is rising.
When volunteers counted the number of homeless across the territory in 2013, it reached 487, said Brenda Walwyn, the special assistant on homelessness at the Human Services Department.
“It’s whomever we meet on that day,” she said. “Undoubtedly, there are more.”
She and others said most of those without permanent homes have mental health or substance abuse problems.
Rev. Carlyle Sampson at Nazareth Lutheran Church sees it first hand. His church sits near Cruz Bay Park, a popular place for homeless people to sleep and hang out.
“We need some kind of hostel,” he said, adding that sometimes he finds people sleeping on church grounds.
Nazareth Lutheran provides meals twice a week and distributes clothing. However, Sampson said most of the donated clothing is for women and most of the homeless residents are men.
On St. John, most of the homeless people moved to the island from the mainland.
“People send them here. It’s warm all year round,” Sampson said.
Walwyn said that’s also the case on St. Thomas. However, she and Human Services Commissioner Christopher Finch both spoke about the department’s program that pays to fly homeless residents to relatives and friends on the mainland.
Some people are promised jobs that don’t materialize or are short-lived. Others arrive hoping to find work.
“It’s hard for someone from away to start as homeless and turn that around,” Finch said.
While St. Thomas has Bethlehem House homeless shelter, Human Services has a program on St. Croix that provides supportive services for people placed in housing to help them make the transition. Walwyn said the department wants to try a similar program on St. John.
Government departments and non-profit agencies were on hand to explain how they could help. The Health Department brought its new mobile van, Patrice Henry from Human Services was ready to tell homeless residents about the department’s vocational programs and Anice Wilson from Health had a roster of mental health services to talk about. Even Walgreens on St. Thomas sent a representative.
“We have a whole program of health tests and we’ll be doing flu shots,” St. John resident and Walgreens employee Dan Carlsen said.
However, like most St. John events, this one runs on volunteers.
“I’m just helping out,” Beverly Biziewski said, ruffling a sheaf of papers.
The event was sponsored by the Human Services Department and United Way of St. Thomas/St. John.
