Making it personal
CAPCA conducts street-outreach days to aid homeless
Lacey Outlaw stopped midsentence, overcome with emotion, when she tried to explain what it has meant to her to serve the homeless in Faulkner County during the pandemic. Outlaw is community programs advocate II for the Community Action Program for Central Arkansas in Conway.
As a result of COVID-19, the organization had to cancel the annual Project Homeless Connect held each January. The one-day event provided everything from free legal services and housing assistance to shoes and haircuts.
Melissa Allen, community programs director for CAPCA, agreed that what started as a disappointment ended as a blessing for the program.
“Because of COVID, we couldn’t do a huge event that had 500 people under one roof — 200 for services — it just wasn’t possible,” she said. When Project Homeless Connect had to be canceled, she said, the team looked for another way to help homeless clients with the extra services offered.
They came up with Project Homeless Connect Street Outreach.
On four Wednesdays in March, CAPCA hired a food truck and provided a long list of services, including health care, registration for housing, free phones, legal aid, Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits, care kits, clothes, shoes, blankets, tents and more.
The street-outreach days in March gave Outlaw more time to spend with the clients.
“Last year when we had Project Homeless Connect, I was so involved in making sure everything was going correctly, and it didn’t feel as personal to me because I wasn’t able to have conversations with [the homeless clients],” she said.
This year, she built relationships, Outlaw said.
“I know their stories. When I see them on the streets, I know their names,” she said. “They’re judged so harshly, and a lot of people are set on, ‘Why don’t they go get a job?’ or ‘They’re drug addicts.’ Learning their stories and getting close to them …,” Outlaw paused, crying. “When they come here, they see me and know my name, too. They’ll tell me some type of supplies that will make their life easier, and when they come up here and get it, they’re just ecstatic.”
Homeless individuals don’t have to wait for service days to get help. CAPCA provides clothes, care kits, tents and emergency supplies every day to homeless clients at its office, 707 E. Robins, Suite 120.
The difference in the outreach events are the free food-truck meal and multiple service providers present.
“That way, they’re not having to trek all across the city trying to access all the
different services,” Allen said.
Only one service day is planned for April — 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Friday in the CAPCA parking lot, 707 Robins St., Suite 700. More information is available by calling the resource line at (501) 205-6930 or by emailing Outlaw at lacey. outlaw@capcainc.org.
The services, food and items are distributed on a first-come, first-served basis.
CAPCA had to purchase more supplies this year than in the past, Allen said, although AmeriCorps donated some tents and blankets. Grant funds were used for most of the emergency supplies, she said.
Individuals donate to CAPCA, “but donations were down tremendously this year, but it’s understandable. Everybody got hit by COVID this year,” Allen said.
COVID made it harder to gain access to homeless clients, too.
“They didn’t want to be out getting COVID, either; a lot of them hunkered down in their camps. They’re not sheltering in place, a lot of them, so that puts everyone at risk. With them out on the street, we don’t have that contact tracing,” she said.
The annual Point in Time homeless count required by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development showed 969 homeless people in Faulkner County in January, including those in homeless shelters.
That number includes 691 children in Faulkner County public schools who qualify as homeless by the definition of the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act, Allen said. Those students include “couch surfers,” who are living with a friend or relative, she said.
Allen said the word began to spread among the homeless community about the street outreach, and the numbers grew each week.
“We did have an excellent turnout,” she said.
Allen said 82 people were served during the four street-outreach days, including 22 who returned more than once. During those days, 800 meals were served (includes second helpings and meals after the event), 40 services were provided, and 1,051 supplies were given out, from first-aid kits to umbrellas.
“After a service day, any food we had left, the staff went out into the camps and actually located the homeless on the streets and let them know about homeless connect days,” Allen said.
“It’s important to realize — people say, ‘Oh, they’re on drugs; they’ve made poor decisions’ — sometimes it’s through no fault of their own. They’re victims of circumstance,” she said. “People can’t see that, and it’s not our job to decide if they deserve [help]. It’s our job to care about them and provide them the services they need so they can transition out of homelessness and out of poverty.”
For example, Allen said, a homeless man named Joshua shared his story during one of the service days. He said he had a girlfriend, a job and a house, but his girlfriend started a relationship with his boss — who was also his landlord.
Allen said that because of this situation, he lost his job and his house, which resulted in him living in his new truck. However, he didn’t have money for his truck registration and tags, so warrants for failure to pay fines were issued for him. His driver’s license was revoked, which led to difficulty getting a job. He couldn’t afford to keep his truck, either, and it was repossessed.
“Now he’s legit living on the street,” she said. “This is the vicious cycle that many of our homeless experience.”
Allen said Joshua talked to legal aid at the service day, “and they are working with him to try to resolve his issues.”
Allen said some of their elderly clients became homeless after the spouse who took care of financial responsibilities, or was the wage earner, died.
Outlaw said “a very small percentage” of the homeless she meets have a drug problem.
“There are so many [homeless people] that are capable of doing so much. They just need that connection, or they’re in crisis state, and they need that crisis removed so they can concentrate on what they can do,” she said.
“My fiance was absolutely one of those people who didn’t see [homeless people], other than somebody asking for money on the street,” she said. His attitude changed after she shared with him what she’s learned.
Outlaw said he said, “This has completely changed my perspective. I see a person now instead of an individual who doesn’t want to do for themselves.”
And she wants others to understand what she has learned about the homeless population.
“One thing … the situations that the majority of them are in are situations everyone has been in at some point in their life. The difference is, like myself, I had friends or family to turn to help me out or the money to be able to pay a fine or a ticket. It’s everyday problems [that have caused them to not have homes]. They didn’t have the support system that other people have,” Outlaw said.
“A lot of them work, and they have lives. Just because they don’t have a home doesn’t mean they’re any different than any of us.”