Davies: 500 homeless on any given night in Floyd County
Many others are just a paycheck away from being homeless.
Bill Davies speaks to Rome Kiwanis Club members about the plight of the homeless.
Bill Davies told civic leaders Monday they would be amazed at how many people are maybe two or three paychecks away from being homeless.
“That’s a scary prospect,” Davies said during a presentation to the Rome Kiwanis Club. The William S. Davies Homeless Shelter in Rome is named after Davies.
He explained that on any given night there are close to 500 people in Rome who don’t have a permanent address. Davies said the reasons for being homeless are varied.
“I would say over half of them have some alcohol or drug issue somewhere along the way,” Davies said. “With the closure of Northwest Regional Hospital, they (the state) made great promises that
there were going to be group homes and these people would have places to go and now we have an enormous population that have nowhere to go.”
He estimated that 85 percent of the homeless who are taken in at the Davies shelter, 312 E. 18th St., are from Floyd County.
Davies said many of the homeless are people who
have gone through a divorce or lost their job.
“Any tragedy you can name, they’ll eventually work their way to being homeless.”
The new facility has been open a little over a month. Davies said it was designed to be able to accommodate 16 homeless men on any given night.
“The day we opened we were debt-free,” Davies said. “We’ve had wonderful support from the community. We take no federal state city or county funds, we are totally (funded) out of the lives and hearts of people of this community.”
“We are what are called
a transition house; we’re not a place to stop and flop,” Davies said.
All of the clients leave at 8:30 a.m. each day and when they return at 5:30 in the evening must show some sort of evidence that they’ve made contacts about getting a job or getting back in school.
Anyone who tests positive drug or alcohol use is asked to leave the facility.
“Part of what we do is help these guys regain some structure to their lives,” Davies said. “We are responsible for blessing others and they learn to do that, too,”