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Norfolk — The tents are squeezed single-file onto a thin strip of grass along Norfolk’s 19th Street, between the sidewalk and the chain-link fence.
Beyond the chain-link, an open field backs up to the Ghent School, where a couple of young boys practice their golf swings. But on this side of the fence, there are a couple dozen folks with no other place to stay.
The homeless camp has a makeshift first-aid station and a little pantry with canned goods. One of the shelters is more like an igloo than a tent — a hard white half-cylinder with a door.
During the day, the bulk of the camp’s residents aren’t around, mostly gone to work, according to those still around, who keep an eye on the tents to make sure their few unsecured belongings don’t disappear.
“We look out for people out here. It’s a community,” said Jonathan Glenn, who was one of the first to set up camp on 19th Street back in November.
In recent months, as the weather has warmed, the ranks have swelled. They’re up to 18 tents. Glenn expects that number to continue to climb, especially when cold-weather shelters close at the end of April.
“Everybody needs somewhere to sleep,” Glenn says, matter-of-factly.
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The camp, smack in the heart of one of the city’s wealthiest areas, is a symptom of a larger problem the city’s trying to address with a new approach.
Street homelessness in Norfolk has roughly doubled since the pandemic started, according to Sarah Fuller, who runs the Norfolk Community Services Board and oversees the city’s homeless outreach and services.
Exact numbers for homelessness are chronically difficult to measure, but as it stands, basically every bed in every shelter or program is spoken for. Some have to turn people away nightly, part of why this camp exists.
The programs the city runs or coordinates, including the Norfolk Emergency Shelter Team and a hotel program begun this year because of the pandemic, have served about twice the number of people who were helped the previous winter.
Homelessness already was on the rise nationally ahead of the pandemic. January 2020 “point-in-time” counts, reported nationally by HUD, were up 2.2% from 2019.
The homeless population has been at particular risk of catching and spreading the coronavirus, with consistently higher-than-average positivity rates. Since many homeless people have underlying health conditions, they’re also at greater risk for serious illness or death if they catch COVID-19.
And while many Americans see light at the end of the pandemic tunnel as more people are vaccinated, the worst may be yet to come for the homeless.
Housing advocates have been warning for months that a tidal wave of evictions is on the horizon, as moratoriums end and other benefits that may have been keeping people afloat — such as increased unemployment payouts and stimulus checks — fade.
(Though the federal eviction moratorium has been extended to June 30, The Washington Post has found that evictions have proceeded throughout Virginia.)
The post-pandemic outlook is bleak. One recent study by a Los Angeles-based group indicates that homelessness driven by lingering unemployment over the next few years could be twice as bad as in the wake of the 2008 recession, unless governments step in with major employment programs.
‘Something different’
In Norfolk, not only has the pandemic driven up the number of homeless, but Fuller said the past year has exposed some substantial gaps and forced the city to alter how it provides services.
For one, access to social services has been curtailed dramatically since so many city offices and facilities were closed over the past year. The United Way has noted social services became more limited across the nation throughout 2020.
The homeless have long relied on places such as libraries and recreation centers to escape summer heat or access the internet, but they’ve been largely closed. So have offices they could visit to request help or meet with case workers. Any in-person access has been limited.
To address the homelessness surge and try to plug those gaps, Fuller has pitched the first city-run shelter and day services center, meant to provide not only a place for people to sleep year round but a central location for service providers.
The plan, at least in the short term, is to set up an overnight shelter and daytime services center in a temporary location, probably through the fall, using federal grant money including CARES Act funds meant to provide pandemic relief.
Fuller said the first iteration of the facility will aim to house 80 overnight via a partnership between the city and NEST. The Community Services Board would staff the daytime services center and coordinate with other service providers at the location.
It’s not yet clear where the shelter will be or exactly when it will open. The plan initially targeted the Willis Building, an unused city-owned property at Church and Brambleton, but Fuller said they’ve decided against that site and are finalizing a different one that she wasn’t ready to unveil. Fuller said they’d hoped to open May 1, but the location change may delay that a little while, so the aim now is “as soon as possible.”
Once the temporary site has operated for a few months, Fuller hopes to have a solid idea how much it would cost to run such a facility permanently and use the lessons learned in the initial months to aggressively pursue further grant funding.
“Cities usually spend years and years to develop this kind of stuff. We’re asking to make that happen in the next year or so,” Fuller said.
The city would bring in a third party to handle day-to-day shelter operations and is expected to partner with NEST, the nonprofit that has helped provide cold-weather sheltering for nearly 30 years.
Typically, the program rotates locations every few weeks among a network of churches and synagogues. This year, pandemic-related health concerns meant NEST set up a semi-permanent location at one church — First Presbytarian in Ghent — rather than the typical rotation.
“Now is the right time to do something different than NEST, have a year round location where they can go,” said Anne Odell, the chairwoman of the board that oversees NEST.
Odell said they’ll count on those churches that previously opened their doors to continue helping, volunteering at the shelter or providing meals.
‘For now, we need it’
Tommy Jones is one of the men who’s taken up residence on that grassy strip along 19th Street. Jones has been homeless for six months, since the sister he was staying with died and he found himself out of work and with nowhere else to go. He spent a while in the NEST shelter, but said he lost his spot and wound up in a tent a few weeks ago.
Jones said he’d heard about the city’s shelter plan from his caseworker. He hopes it’s up and running before it gets too hot.
“I’m waiting on it,” Jones said. “Everybody’s just trying to get out of here and get off the street.”
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One thing the city and NEST have found this year is knowing where the homeless will be makes coordinating services much easier. The city’s pandemic hotel program and the single NEST site cut down on time spent hunting for someone who has qualified for a housing voucher or needs continuing medical treatment.
Before, NEST would have to coordinate to bring together nonprofits and government groups providing different services, or else refer those seeking shelter to groups at scattered locations across the city.
The single-site plan from the city could be a game-changer, Odell said.
“Having social services agencies in a central location where the homeless can go is going to be a big boost,” Odell said. “Hopefully we’ll be able to hook people up with the things they need to get out of homelessness.”
For now, the homeless have taken it upon themselves to create a single site: the one in Ghent.
The location and visibility of the camp has caused some consternation from locals, with concerns voiced to council members and The Virginian-Pilot, particularly due to its proximity to schools and a daycare.
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The camp is across the street from the Up Center, which provides support services for families and children, and a Salvation Army shelter. The shelter is full, but has a shower. The Up Center lets them use the restrooms. And 19th Street is within walking distance of several other social service providers.
“Even though the tents are disturbing to some people, we need some place to stay,” said Glenn, one of the camp’s founders. Caseworkers from different agencies working with homeless folks to find housing or services need a consistent place to find those they’re working with, he said. “This seems the most reasonable place.”
He insists nothing illicit is happening. Police haven’t bothered them. The city dropped off trash bins, which are emptied regularly. The camp’s residents have taken to raking up the grass around the tents to nab small bits of trash.
“We don’t want to make this place an eyesore,” Glenn said.
But he knows in some ways, their stay on 19th Street is a waiting game: Will they get help, be it shelter placement or other services, before their time runs out?
“I don’t know when the city is going to come back and reclaim its land … but for now, we need it,” he said. “We haven’t gotten any eviction notice from the city of Norfolk yet.”
Ryan Murphy, 757-739-8582, ryan.murphy@pilotonline.com