Empty homes throughout Gary draw homeless
By Carole Carlson ccarlson@post-trib.com January 25, 2012 5:10PM
Sharron Liggins, consulting executive director for the Continuum of Care Network, makes a call for her next stop after checking an abandoned house for signs of someone sheltering there during the Point-In-Time Count, the annual homeless count, in Gary, Ind. Wednesday January 25, 2012. | Stephanie Dowell~Sun-Times Media
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Updated: February 27, 2012 9:50AM
GARY — Sharron Liggins knows the drill. Warm hat, cell phone, coat, flashlight, blank forms.
Liggins, who heads a local agency that serves the area’s homeless population, and a group of about 45 volunteers took to the streets and shelters Wednesday for the annual Point-in-Time Count, a statewide homeless census.
Liggins and William Gillespie, both with Continuum of Care Network of Northwest Indiana, said they count people living in shelters and those they encounter on the streets in Gary, Hammond and East Chicago.
They tell people where shelters are and how they can receive assistance and food, Gillespie said. The census data become a tool for state officials to measure homeless trends and for the allocation of funding for services.
After stopping at Brothers’ Keeper and the Sojourner Truth House, Liggins steered her car down Monroe Street, just north of Ridge Road.
She parked at one house that showed signs of squatters, but moved away quickly when barking dogs saw her. Although the dogs were fenced in, Liggins didn’t want to test their protective skills.
Across the street, she poked her head through a broken-out picture window and saw more evidence of visitors — discarded junk-food wrappers and graffiti scrawled on the living room wall. Voices could be heard through a side window but when Liggins asked if anyone was there, it became quiet. She stayed for a few minutes and then left when no one appeared.
“Foreclosures are a major problem for us. People have lost their homes and they have to abandon them.”
She said finding signs of people squatting in abandoned houses is becoming commonplace. “At one point, I could go to certain sections of the city, but now you can go anywhere, any street. Hopefully, the new administration is going to address it.”
There are 17 men living at Veterans Life Changing Services at 501 W. Ridge Road. Two of them, Chris Jones, 41, and Jack Robinson, 57, volunteered to assist in the count.
Jones, who was in the Gulf War from 1989-90 with the U.S. Navy, said he suffers from depression. He said he worked until 12 years ago when his illness overtook his life. He’s getting treatment now and says the veterans shelter provides stability.
Robinson, also a Navy vet, said he’s been homeless since his Black Oak home burned down. He bounced around for a few years and has lived at the veterans shelter for three months. “I think everybody needs to be counted so the money can be allocated,” Robinson said.
Another volunteer, Douglas Coutee, 56, of Merrillville, came to the veterans shelter after struggling with alcoholism. He says he hasn’t had a drink in two years and has moved back in with his wife in Merrillville.
He served aboard the USS Kitty Hawk aircraft carrier in 1975 during the fall of Saigon. “That’s why I struggle with post-traumatic stress disorder today. There were so many body bags, you couldn’t count them,” he said.
Reach reporter Carole Carlson at 648-3154.
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