By Jacqueline Raithel

April 26, 2009

“It’s like they put walls up around here. I just can’t get out.”

Paul got out of prison yesterday, but he’s been stuck on the streets of Richmond for three years.

He used to dig wells in New Jersey, but after a divorce he jumped in his Jeep and headed south. He got another job digging wells in Charles City, Va., but when he found out he needed a new $2,000 motor for his Jeep, he came to Richmond, where he said he had hoped he wouldn’t need a car to find a job.

Three years later, Paul doesn’t have a job. Instead, he spent 30 days in prison for trespassing and assault. Because of the weakening economy and the impending summer weather, homeless shelters around the city have been closing or limiting their services, leaving men like Paul with few places to go.

In the winter there are sometimes more than eight shelters open, said Victor Little, a homelessness specialist for the city’s department of social services. In the summer, sometimes there’s one open shelter.

“They do their beds like a lottery system,” Paul said about the shelter he had been staying at before his time in jail. “Basically, you pick a number and if you don’t pick a bed number, you gotta go.”

Without a bed, many of Richmond’s homeless find shelter in large bushes or small wooded areas. Some use bushes as simply a place to stay covered during the night, others take up permanent residence, usually using tarps or even a tent.

Richmond police often find encampments of homeless men near the train tracks. In recently discovered camp just off the tracks near North Boulevard and West Leigh Street police found tents, old clothing, empty boxes and hundreds of empty beer, water and Gatorade bottles. Several men had been living in woods there. As long as the homeless aren’t causing trouble and the land owners aren’t opposed to it, police usually leave the men alone, but just down the tracks in another camp, police found several stolen bikes. That camp is empty now – police took its resident into custody.

Just a few yards down the tracks, “Boxcar Willie” used to have his camp there too. Boxcar Willie is in his mid 80s. He’d been living at that spot in the woods for more than 20 years, but he’s gone now. He’s one of Richmond’s success stories.

“One day it was cold and he finally said, ‘I need help,’” Little said. “We pretty much took care of him that day.”

Little is a part of a five-man unit from the City of Richmond Police department. The HOPE unit – Homeless Outreach Partnership Program – consists of three officers, a sergeant and Little, a social worker. The unit is responsible for monitoring the homeless in Richmond, trying as often as possible to deal first with social issues, and then criminal, Little said.

On an average day the unit splits up and patrols the city, checking in with their “usuals,” talking with them, figuring out who wants help and who’s satisfied on the street.

“There are some people that enjoy [being homeless],” HOPE officer Sonia Austin-Moore said. “They want it to be that way. They like getting their $20 check every month.”

The HOPE unit is prepared to help those that do want help. Austin-Moore keeps a stash of bus tickets in her pocket for the homeless who have doctor’s appointments or referrals to the Conrad Center.

The Conrad Center – Freedom House, near Churchill in Richmond, is a non-profit organization that helps the homeless by not only providing food and clothes, but also counseling services and opportunities to meet with therapists about the drug and/or alcohol problems with which many homeless people deal.

Although anyone is able to visit the Conrad Center, Little frequently gives homeless people referrals to the center because the HOPE unit has good connections with the center and respects the work it does, he said. The Conrad Center is a first step in the right direction for overcoming homelessness, he said.

After speaking with members of the HOPE unit, Boxcar Willie was driven to the Daily Planet, another center similar to the Conrad Center. He’s now in medical respite and social services is helping him search for affordable, permanent housing. Boxcar Willie’s process was very quick, because he when he spoke up, he really meant it, Little said.

In some cases, Little said the HOPE unit has the opportunity to circumvent the system if necessary.

“Obviously we can’t do it every time,” he said, “but we’re really problem solvers.”

It won’t happen in a day, but Little gave Paul a referral to the Conrad Center too. From there, it’s up to him.

“There are success stories,” Little said, “but people have to want help.”