Augusta Commissioners, along with a who’s who of local non-profit agencies, are banding together in creating a homeless task force subcommittee to come up with solutions to help those who are homeless find a home, a job and the skills needed to be productive members of society.
More: Augusta Could Make Great Strides for the Homeless
The group includes Commissioners Jordan Johnson (District 1) and Dennis Williams (District 2)
along with representatives of the United Way, Salvation Army, Serenity Behavioral Health, the
Freddie Mae Foundation and the Richmond County Sheriff’s Office.
While the subcommittee is just in the beginning stages, they have all signed onto a memorandum of understanding that they will use a “21st-century way to address the issue of homelessness,” and will look to other cities such as Columbus, GA as examples on how to properly tackle the issue.
“Right now there are 580 homeless children in our school system,” says Venus Cain who represents the Richmond County School Board on the subcommittee. “Some of those kids are doubling up with family members, but right now 157 kids are living in motel rooms, 31 are in our shelters and we have 26 unsheltered kids coming to school.”
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Yes, you read that correctly. There are kids living on the streets but also attending school. Cain
says that many of those same kids are the target of traffickers.
“Right now, we have 27 kids in custody that were the victims of traffickers,” she said.
More: It’s Time Finally to Address Homeless Issue in Augusta
For Christopher Mullins, founder of the Freddie Mae Foundation that helps homeless men, his real wakeup call came last December when homeless veteran Willie Walker was found frozen to death in his wheelchair.
Walker was a fixture at the corner of Reynolds and 13th Street with his simple sign identifying himself as a Vietnam Veteran and asking for spare change.
“I was so upset to learn that we have people literally dying of hypothermia or heat exhaustion,”
Mullins said. “Willie Walker wasn’t the first to die tragically. At some point, we have to hold ourselves responsible to help take care of these people and help them if they want it and will
accept it.”
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Mullins’ group, the Freddie Mae Foundation, hosts many homeless outreach programs such as
providing clothing, toiletries and bag lunches. They also hold classes in financial literacy for those wanting that leg up to become financially independent.
“Many of these men are a product of their environment,” he says, “they learned from a father that was on the streets or in and out of jail. It is all they know, so we are here to give them the education they need to be productive members of society.”
The members of the subcommittee agreed that they were not there to eradicate homelessness, but to make it “rare” in Augusta/Richmond County.
The subcommittee will first focus on creating a “one-stop” place where people can congregate to learn of job opportunities, get access to public transportation, have access to mail and computers, join workforce development activities, store their belongings during the day while they work and find affordable housing.
“We are bringing in the expertise,” Commissioner Jordan Johnson told participants. “We want to make homelessness in Augusta rare and temporary.”
Scott Hudson is the Managing Editor of The Augusta Press. Reach him at scott@theaugustapress.com
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