A lack of transitional housing, services put many in precarious and expensive living conditions
Up on a hill overlooking U.S. Highway 431 in Drakesboro, two people in their mid-40s are living in a badly worn tent. The tent is missing its poles, and was laying almost flat on the couple as they emerged to greet Scott Casebier and Debra Gorham, volunteers from Hope2All Food Pantry, on April 7. They were delivering food and checking in to see if they could help in any way.
A myriad of issues have occurred to bring Mary and Scotty to this spot. Mary has been on disability since childhood, but at some point fell out of the system. Scotty seemed unwilling to relive the series of events that landed him here. The two have no income at all.
At the corner of Keigan Street and Ike Everly Boulevard there is a low cinderblock building people at the food pantry call the “chicken houses”. It has been divided into three units, which are rented out to people as a place to live.
The chicken houses are reported to have no running water, no toilets, and only one unit has electricity. Gorham said one unit was missing a door and windows, but they have recently been replaced. She thinks one unit has a dirt floor. The building is surrounded by faded single-wide trailers, all rented by the same landlord.
Mary had lived in the chicken houses when she was with her husband, who had a job at a saw mill in South Carrollton. Gorham said he rode a bicycle to work each day, roughly 20 miles each way. She’s not sure where he is now, but Mary was unable to pay the $300 in rent to stay there, so she has been living outdoors for about six months.
A 16-year old boy lives at the Central Motel in Central City with his mother, aunt and adult cousin. The four of them live in one room with only one bed. Brayden is in high school, and works a job to provide for his family. His mother recently lost her husband, and her only income is child support from Brayden’s father.
Brayden catches the school bus around the corner. He’s lived at the motel for around five months. They were living at another local motel, and before that he lived in a rented house with his mother. They were evicted when her husband moved back into the home, she said. Then he got sick and their lives spiraled.
“It’s hard, but you just have to take it day by day,” Brayden’s mother said. They see a lot of people pass through the open courtyard of the motel, many with no place to stay. Some camp in the woods nearby, she said. “Stuff goes on here,” she says, “but we don’t get harassed by anyone.”
“Homelessness is a bigger issue than most people know,” Brayden said.
At the other end of the motel, a young family of five are living in a room with two queen beds. There are little tricycles and a bike with training wheels sitting outside the door, and the room is tidy. Brianna is doing her best to get the three youngsters to put on shoes before they go out to play in the alley alongside their room.
Her husband has a job at a nearby coal mine, but the family has been living in hotels and motels since December. His income makes them ineligible for food stamps, Brianna said, but they aren’t able to save enough for first and last month’s rent, plus a deposit, normally required to rent a home. They pay $700 every two weeks to live at the motel.
The family’s car recently broke down, leaving them without transportation. Brayden and his family also have no transportation. Gorham takes down their room numbers to add them to the list of deliveries the food bank makes.
As Scott Casebier continues along the route from Drakesboro to Powderly, he points out places the pantry delivers boxes of food once a month. There are camp trailers, storage sheds, and homes with boarded up windows. He said working at the pantry has shed a light on people living in precarious places around the community.
“Being a pastor, down through the years, we help people through our churches, and know it exists. But not until I got with Hope2All did I realize the needs,” he said.
The food pantry sends roughly 800 boxes of food home with Muhlenberg County residents each month, which are meant to feed a household. Each week, the pantry sees 20-30 new families who qualify for food assistance come through the line, which snakes around the block. Dozens more are delivered to people without transportation.
When it comes to solutions for people who are experiencing homelessness in Muhlenberg County, Debra Gorham said transitional housing would make a huge difference as people struggle to get on their feet again. She has seen many people come through the pantry who need a place to live for a short time, while they save for the costs of moving into a new home. The high rates some are paying to live in temporary housing makes it nearly impossible to save.
“You don’t ever get used to it,” she said, about paying visits to people in such need for a place to live.
Brayden, the teen who lives at Central Motel, said he wishes there were more options available for his family. “It seems like there are lots of programs for adults, who are on drugs,” he said. Meanwhile, his mother needs to obtain a copy of her birth certificate in order to apply for public housing. Long wait lists mean her family will likely be in the motel for quite a while.
Casebier and Gorham said there is no way to know exactly how many people are experiencing homelessness in the county. The numbers needing food assistance have dropped since the pandemic, but many continue to go without stable places to live. A tight rental market, the high cost of temporary housing, and a lack of affordable public transportation all contribute to the crisis some are experiencing.
“We have people who come to our food pantry that live like the rest of us, but then something happens,” Casebier said. They get sick, lose their transportation or their job, and end up needing food assistance from the pantry.
Casebier wraps up his visit with Scotty and Mary by asking them if they need anything. He’ll purchase a new tent and air mattress for them, and offers to put them up in a motel for a night or two. Mary declines the offer. She said it might sound funny, but she’s gotten used to living outdoors.
For more information about Hope2All Food Pantry, contact them at 270-476-5152. For food assistance visit the pantry on Mondays at 307 West Mose Rager Boulevard in Drakesboro.
