Huddled under a bridge in the heart of Abilene's downtown with all their
worldly possessions, Mary Bowden and her boyfriend lived in the dirt.Survival is a daily struggle for the homeless
By TANYA EISERER / Abilene Reporter-News
Photo By Gerald Ewing
Huddled under a bridge in the heart of Abilene's downtown with all their
worldly possessions, Mary Bowden and her boyfriend lived in the dirt.
The 1976 Cooper High School graduate and her boyfriend made their home, concealed from passersby, in the shadowy culverts of the bridge at North First and Cedar.
The couple landed on the streets in early February after they were evicted from their rent-subsidized apartment on Vogel.
"It was rough. We didn't get much to eat. Often, we couldn't get a shower," Bowden said.
If not for the Breakfast on Beech Street program at First Christian and the showers at the Family Life Center of First Baptist Church, Bowden said it would have been even more unbearable.
"I'd be thinking 'What day is this?' I'd have my watch and I'd know the time, but not the day. I got confused after a while."
Bowden is living on the edge. She's one of the people who struggle to survive day to day. Some of these people are homeless. Some are just one paycheck away from ending up on the street.
Nobody knows
Depending on whom you ask, Abilene has between two and 87 homeless individuals. Another one-fifth of the households in Abilene are at or below 50 percent of median income.
When welfare reform goes fully into effect, those numbers are expected to increase.
"We really don't know" how many homeless people there are in Abilene, said Wanda Merritt, the city's community development coordinator.
"You have the sheltered and unsheltered homeless. Folks at the Salvation Army are sheltered but they're homeless," she said.
Belinda Cook, executive director of Hope Haven, terms people living with a relative, in a car or in extremely substandard housing as homeless.
The Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs defines "an individual who lacks a fixed, regular and adequate nighttime residence" as homeless.
U.S. Census Department officials conducted a 24-hour count in every metropolitan community, including Abilene, in the spring of 1990 to determine how many families and individuals were homeless.
In Abilene, census workers found 27 individuals in emergency shelters, 33 people in shelters for abused women and 25 individuals in shelters for runaways, neglected and homeless children. The survey found two homeless people visible on street locations for a total of 87 homeless people, according to the city's five-year Consolidated Plan for Housing and Community Development, compiled in August of 1995.
But the census study is worthless, Cook said.
"According to the census study, there are practically no homeless people here. We need a valid study that will meet academic scrutiny," she said.
When estimates for hidden homelessness, substandard living conditions and obviously homeless individuals are combined, Cook said she believes there are between 2,000 to 3,000 individuals in unstable living situations in Abilene.
Figures from the Salvation Army and Hope Haven may serve to gauge the problem Abilene and surrounding counties face.
In 1996, Hope Haven assisted 133 homeless individuals, and an additional 2,160 people were referred to other agencies. During the last seven months of 1996, Hope Haven turned away 145 requests from families because of lack of space, Cook said.
The Salvation Army provided shelter to 4,716 individuals, including 12 families in 1996, according to Salvation Army Captain Edward Alonzo. The Salvation Army also served about 186,000 meals last year, he said.
Because of Abilene's central location, many of those individuals were on their way to and from larger cities, Alonzo said.
The Noah Project, a local battered women's shelter, also housed more than 640 women and children in 1996, said Susan Keeling, executive director.
In danger
The 1990 U.S. Census also found 22 percent of Abilene's households are threatened with homelessness, the city's consolidated plan stated.
According to the report, Abilene had 8,597 very low-income households with incomes at or below 50 percent of the median income. A four-person family with an income of $14,650 would be at 50 percent of the median income.
"Some people have a roof over their heads, but that's all," said Jim Sayre, a local businessman who helps feed the homeless and needy. "We're so used to seeing it on TV that we've dissociated ourselves from it.
"There are hundreds of people in this town that the only difference between them and the homeless is that they manage to keep a roof over their head," he said.
Doug Underhill, minister of missions for Pioneer Drive Baptist Church, calls them "people living on a thread."
"They are literally living day to day," Underhill said. "Some of them can't even afford to take their children to a doctor. They don't have a car. They don't have a family physician. They can barely afford to have a home and buy food."
Ballooning problem
Local service providers and homeless advocates fear the number of homeless individuals in Abilene will balloon now that welfare reform has started. Under the state's welfare reform plan, the adult caregiver would be limited to a three-year lifetime limit.
A person making minimum wage can't survive paying rent, utilities, deposits, day care and other expenses, added the Salvation Army's Alonzo.
"If they think welfare reform will be the solution to all the problems, they're wrong," he said. "It's going to be traumatic. These people want to work, but they can't survive on what they'll get paid."
Both Cook and Alonzo agree there will be more demand for their services as welfare reforms go into effect.
But Cook sees welfare reform as a necessary evil.
'It's got to change. In situations where people know no other way to live, you see a very poor work ethic," she said. "At the same time, change is always hard."
Where are they?
In a semi-rural area like Abilene, the problems of homelessness and people living in overcrowded conditions are often hidden from the casual observer.
"They don't want you to know they're homeless. You may see them waiting on you in a restaurant or on a street corner or at work. They don't want you to know who they are," Cook said. "A lot of the people out there are hidden because they're afraid. A lot of times they live with relatives and friends."
Mark Hewitt, pastor of The Mission, a new ministry created for people on the edge, agrees.
"There are people who live under bridges," he said. "There are people who stay in trees. They stay in huts. They stay in trash cans."
Hewitt has scoured the streets and found these individuals so he can minister to them.
One homeless man lives in a small storage shed near a downtown company. Others live in shacks behind houses or abandoned businesses.
Some live in vacant warehouses. One man lives in a cardboard box in a wooded area near a large store in north Abilene.
Because of their spaciousness, vans are also a particular favorite for some of Abilene's homeless, Hewitt said. Others crowd in with relatives.
"Just because you don't see them doesn't mean they're not out there," said Ray "Pops" Crabtree, who lived on the streets for years before recently moving into a house with three other formerly homeless people.
At one time, many of Abilene's street people lived in Hobo Jungle, an isolated strip of land south of the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Bridge.
But fire ants have driven them out into other neighborhoods, Hewitt said. They now stay anywhere they can find shelter.
Breaking point
Mary Bowden's situation came to a breaking point in early April when her boyfriend was arrested for allegedly burglarizing a building. She was left to fend for herself under the bridge.
"When he went to jail, I was sleeping under the bridge by myself. I was pretty scared," she said.
She spent a week under the bridge by herself until relatives intervened, helping her get an apartment. She also recently found a job.
But those months under the bridge left an indelible mark.
"I'm not staying under there any more, and I really mean it. It's no fun," she said. "It feels good to be clean and in clean clothes."