Amador County – With the economy in a bad place, the local homeless shelter operator has been getting help from local organizations, to assure that she can still offer a good place for homeless families and individuals.
Denise Cloward, Amador Emergency Shelter Coordinator said last week that churches really helped the Jackson shelter and Amador County homeless people make it through the holidays recently. She said 10 churches are now involved in the Amador Faith Based Emergency Housing Committee, which meets once a month and helps people get back on their feet. She hopes to get all churches in Amador County involved eventually.
Assistance includes gasoline vouchers, tire purchases, and apartments. The Jackson shelter had 22 families and nine children over Christmas, and last week had 16 people staying there.
Cloward and the group Amador-Tuolumne Community Action Agency will be helping with a survey of the homeless in Amador County. A-TCAA Housing Resources Director Margaret “Beetle” Barbour said the survey will be conducted for 48 hours on Jan. 25-27. And she gave some examples of the last survey in Amador. It said 42 percent of those surveyed were in the age range of 50-64 years old. She said “Amador has an older overall homeless population compared to Calaveras and Tuolumne counties, and other areas with similar geography.
Barbour said about “87 percent of the adults surveyed had housing and then became homeless while they were already living in Amador County.” And 91 percent consider Amador County their home, and “are actual residents having a strong connection to the community.
The 2009 study said about 74 percent of adults planned “to either sleep outside or did not know where they were going to sleep on the day they were surveyed.” Barbour said “additional emergency or transitional housing would alleviate much of this problem.”
About 41 percent of Amador homeless people were considered to be “Chronically Homeless,” defined as having “been homeless more than four times in the last three years or homeless for more than a year at the time they were surveyed. This was down slightly from the 52 percent in 2007.
47 percent ,nearly half of homeless adults surveyed were women, Barbour said, a “clear trend in Amador County’s homeless demographics,” up from 45 percent in 2007. “Most jurisdictions have a much lower percentage of homeless female adults,” Barbour said, and this “may indicate a profound need for women-only shelters since homeless women are in greater danger of being victims of rape and other violent crimes.”
To volunteer to help with the 2011 survey, call (209) 223-9215.
Story by Jim Reece This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
