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There was no way Tommy was going to make it. He had drifted from homeless shelter to shelter, in and out of detox, from friend to family. No one wanted to deal with the problems his drug and alcohol addiction created.
He was an outcast with no future. He seemed destined to a life cut short by self-abuse and neglect.
When he arrived at Casa San Francisco in Milton, even the staff wrote him off at first.
He sat alone in the corner, trembling.
But slowly, he began to show signs of life, said William Post, the case manager.
Almost miraculously, he was able to get sober.
“ This type of structured program was working for him – this was the kind of place he was looking for. He needed the discipline,” he said. “ It was an about face.”
He was able to get a job and was so committed to working, he rode his bike 20 miles a day, night and day in all kinds of weather, because he had no other form of transportation available.
Lydia lives a lonely existence trapped within herself. Her home is her car.
Although people find that shocking, she seems to have no other option, said Post.
She travels around the area, and usually ends up parked at Casa for lunch and to use the bathroom. She suffers from severe schizophrenia and cannot interact with other people, Post said. In fact, although she is harmless, she scares other people.
She lives on less than $ 500 a month Social Security disability income.
Post said he has tried to retrace her life and discovered she has lived in shelters and in her car for years in different locations throughout the United States. Well- meaning social workers have tried to help her over the years, but to no avail.
Post said Lydia’s life is an endless spiral of despair. She ends up in a strange town, is reported to the police, detained, ends up in a hospital and is out in a week. And then she moves on.
There is simply no place for Lydia. Tommy and Lydia, not their real names, are only two of the hundreds of homeless people who enter the doors at Casa San Francisco, the only homeless shelter in the area. Operated by Catholic Charities, the shelter not only offers a 10- bed shelter for the homeless, but also provides a free daily hot meal, emergency food pantry, emergency financial assistance to those facing eviction, and basic adult education.
Post said people have no idea of the extent of the homeless problem. He said the shelter turned away at least 1,000 people last year, and on any given night, there are 250 homeless people in Sussex County.
And those are conservative estimates, said Leah Sullivan, director of the shelter.
Both agree the problem is getting worse – not better – as more people, for a variety of reasons, find themselves trapped in the vicious cycle of homelessness.
Post said homelessness is a word that encompasses a multitude of other social ills. “ Being homeless is an indicator of many other problems,” he said.
Those social ills include lack of treatment for mental illness and substance abuse, lack of affordable housing and low- income jobs.
He said the vast majority of the clients at Casa suffer from some form of mental illness, substance abuse or both. Sadly, he said, most get little or no treatment.
He and Sullivan agreed that mental health treatment for adults in Delaware is lacking.
For many severely mentally ill people, care is left up to their families, said Sullivan.
And when families can no longer cope, or no longer care, people are left on their own, and most end up on the streets.
Beds are always filled
Even though the shelter screens clients and does background checks, its 10 beds are usually filled every night of the year.
There are five beds for males and five beds for females. Since most people seeking shelter are males, there are times when a bed or two is empty in the female room, but never in the male room, Sullivan said.
“ People are living in sheds, garages, and a lot end up in old cars,” Post said.
At Casa, 50 percent of those who find refuge have no income, not even Social Security, and 50 percent also come from outside Sussex County, proving the constant movement of homeless people.
While at Casa, clients follow a strict routine and any deviance from the rules is an easy route out the door. Post said finding work, getting medical treatment, and teaching life skills are the priorities they work on for each client.
“ We hook people up with as many resources as possible because they are not aware of the resources,” he said. “ Many do not have the basic life skills. They are on another system – a system of survival that you and I are not even aware of. Even showering every day is a different kind of lifestyle for some.”
Concern for medical issues
Sullivan said many of the people they interact with are also suffering from chronic developmental delays that lead to serious behavior problems.
Casa staff helps clients apply for jobs, Social Security disability income, and Medicare.
The staff also tries to get medical help for clients, which includes free prescriptions during their stay.
“ Medical issues are a big deal,” said Sullivan. “ We have many people with chronic medical conditions that need immediate care.”
Those conditions include HIV- AIDS, cancer, diabetes and heart disease. Most clients, even though they may be eligible for Medicare, do not know how to apply.
“ And rarely can we complete the whole process within the 30 days they are here.
Sometimes we never know if they see a doctor,” Sullivan said.
La Red, a health clinic in Georgetown, has been a godsend by providing care to some Casa clients, she said.
Transportation problems
Although Casa has its share of successes, Sullivan said there are obstacles that stymie their progress including transportation and housing. She said they could place more people into jobs if there were more public transportation and relocate people once they leave Casa if there were more affordable housing in the area.
Sullivan said they have been able to collaborate with a local landlord to provide a few transitional apartments for people once they leave Casa, but transitional housing for people trying to get their lives back in order is practically nonexistent, Sullivan said.
In addition, local business people have been supportive of hiring Casa clients in a variety of jobs from construction to retail to assembly line jobs at area chicken processing plants.
But, Sullivan said, getting people to their jobs is always a problem, and some good workers have lost decent jobs because they do not have dependable transportation.
Contact Ron MacArthur at ronm@capegazette.com
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