Staff Writer
Anger and despair were palpable among the middle-aged, able-bodied men waiting for beds Monday outside the Garden City Rescue Mission homeless shelter.
Sitting in a row on a brick garden wall, sweat beading on their stony faces, they complained bitterly of jobs shipped to India and Mexican immigrants undercutting them to take what's left.
Asked how he wound up at the Fenwick Street shelter, a 47-year-old man who wouldn't give his name said he lost his job four months ago, after working in stucco for nearly 20 years.
"It's simple," he said. "Times are hard. There ain't no jobs in Augusta, and you gotta do what you gotta do."
Augusta's homeless population teeters at about 7,000 people a year, according to Vicki Johnson, community development manager for the city's Housing and Community Development Department. The figures include children, she said, and are high for a city Augusta's size.
Ms. Johnson is hoping that $321,936 in federal grant money, which will be left over this year from the U.S. Housing and Urban Development's Continuum of Care Homeless Assistance Program, will help fill one of the biggest problems affecting the homeless: a lack of affordable, permanent housing. The city is looking for an agency to build it, and her department will hold a public meeting this morning at the Municipal Building for nonprofit agencies, developers and other entities interested in applying for the money.
The city receives $770,250 a year through the program, and $448,314 of that is dispersed to Hope House, Goodwill Industries, CSRA Economic Opportunity Authority Inc., and the city government.
Fran Oliver, executive director of Mercy Ministries, tries to find jobs and cheap housing for the homeless men and women who come to the day shelter in Harrisburg. She said a tough economy is putting more and more people in dire straits, straining resources for agencies trying to help them.
"It's a tough time for the middle class," Mrs. Oliver said. "And you know it's got to be rough for the people on the bottom."
She said it would help many of her clients if Augusta Public Transit ran later bus routes. The hours of operation put restaurants along Washington Road out of reach for them.
"If you can't work after 6 o'clock at night, no one needs you," she said.
One man at Mercy Ministries on Monday, George Nelson, 57, said he needs work more than anything right now. He said he was laid off from his job as a forklift driver at Castleberry's Food Co. a year ago and has since lived in shelters. He's currently at Garden City Rescue Mission.
When he was employed, he lived in a motel on Gordon Highway. He said he struggles with alcoholism, and he managed to stay sober for a year after a stint in rehab.
Then he started drinking again when he lost his job. He said he last drank on Saturday.
Mr. Nelson said he has a son and a daughter who live in Hephzibah, but he can't go to them for help.
"I guess they feel like, in their heart of hearts, I let them down," he said, speaking with a stutter that he says causes potential employers to think he has a mental deficiency.
Willie Allen, 49, walked to Garden City on Monday with forearm crutches. He said arthritis and polio have made him unemployable, and he sleeps there when he's not staying with relatives.
Drugs and alcohol are underlying factors for about half the men at Garden City, he said. The rest just can't find work.
"Most of the people in there don't want to be there," Mr. Allen said.
Reach Johnny Edwards at (706) 823-3225 or johnny.edwards@augustachronicle.com.
AUGUSTA'S HOMELESS
The following figures are based on canvasses of areas where the homeless congregate, along with surveys of shelters and other agencies assisting them.
YEARLY TOTALS
2008 6,947
2007 7,141
SNAPSHOT, SINGLE-DAY NUMBERS, taken each year in late January
2008 545
2007 472
Source: Vicki Johnson, community development manager for Housing and Community Development
MEETING TODAY
A public meeting on the Continuum of Care Homeless Assistance Program will be held at 10 a.m. in Room 803 of the Augusta-Richmond County Municipal Building, 530 Greene St.
Residents, nonprofits, developers and others interested in applying for grants to build affordable, permanent housing for the city's poor are encouraged to attend.
