Prairie Region News
(2008-04-07)
CATONSVILLE, MD
(wypr) -
A cool, damp night turns into a brightly lit office trailer. It's the first stop on the grounds of spring grove state hospital, for Baltimore county's western men's homeless shelter.Night manager David Banks shows a visitor around.
{ambs of card shuffling track 9, 3:02 *bring under reporter track}
Some of the regulars are playing cards. Friday nights, they get a movie and popcorn.
Up to 90 can cram into the trailers any night, after a bus picks them up along Frederick road in Catonsville:
Tape: (15 seconds) banks intv. Track 9, 1:49
ic: at five o'clock, he'll start going picking em up. He'll just keep on going until 5:30; then we pick up every half-hour, on the half-hour, until 8 o'clock or until the shelter is filled. We fill up quick now.
{ambs of sleeping trailer track 10 0:50ish }
In one of the sleeping trailers, a couple dozen men have at least found a warm, dry place to spend the night. A lucky few have cots off the floor, while most sleep on blue rubber mats covered by scrap cloth blankets, the kind movers use sometimes to prevent scratching.
It is a mixed-race group, more reflective of Baltimore County's make-up. Of course, being homeless means jurisdictions don't matter:
Tape: (17 seconds) jackson-bey intv. Track 11, 3:10
ic: i was informed that this is a better shelter here. I don't like the shelters that they have in town. This one is more cleaner; it's more sufficient and you get more respect here, in this particular shelter. And i've been to just about every shelter in baltimore.
Antonio Jackson-Bey, originally from New York, wound up in Maryland and stayed after an arrest on the eastern shore led to prison time. He has, as he says, trouble with addiction, but his mind is sharp recalling specific dates of being out on the streets and actually having an apartment:
Tape: (8 seconds) jackson-bey intv. Track 11, 2:30
ic: for the last couple days, i was working. But i choose not to go back to that job for personal reasons. Right now, i'm looking for other work.
About one-third of the homeless men here work, according to Tony Coffield of the community assistance network can which operates the shelter for Baltimore county:
Tape: (10 seconds) coffield intv. Track 7, 2:57
ic: we have a GED program; we have an employment program; we have a housing program. We have a samaritan program which we are helping people to move from homelessness to permanent housing.
{ambs of forum q and a track 4, 0:50ish }
Catonsville United Methodist church is home base for the Lazarus caucus, a group of local churches that donate time and items to the shelter.
Recently, activists and advocates gathered in the church to talk about the most favored site for relocation:
Tape: (7 seconds) harvey speaking at forum track 3, 1:12
ic: obviously, being in an industrial park, lots of potential employment opportunities
Mary Harvey of Baltimore county's community conservation office is speaking about the plan to build a strong shelter on warehouse land alongside the Maryland food bank facility in Halethorpe a synergistic approach to community needs.
But what about the physical, close-by community:
Tape: (5 seconds) cullen intv. Track 8, 1:45
ic: ...they don't pop in people's minds as being a tremendous positive.
Sandy Cullen heads the Halethorpe improvement association, still smarting from a couple years ago when the county opened an emergency winter shelter in the town that saw vagrants milling about with nothing to do during the day.
In a church still decorated for Easter, Cullen tries to empathize:
Tape: (15 seconds) cullen inv. Track 8, 2:29
ic: we're just coming off a season of reflection. There are a lot of people that are one step away from being tremendously down on their luck. And these people sometimes have very intransigent problems. But i think it is about striking a balance.
And oddly enough, the Catonsville churches would prefer a permanent shelter remain close-by.
But something needs to be done, amidst the mortgage crisis, according to county homeless services coordinator Sandy Monck,:
Tape: (10 seconds) monck intv. ***can be thightened*** track 5, 1:07
ic: we're getting more phone calls from folks who've lost their home. I can say, this time last year, we weren't getting phone calls like that.
{forum ambs track 6}
The cold weather shelter closes for the season in a couple weeks.
I'm Bob Costantini, reporting from Catonsville, for 88.1, WYPR.
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