Servicing the unhoused
BOWLING GREEN, Ky. – With consumer prices remaining high, the last few years have seen many people put in untenable financial situations. This unfortunately leads to homelessness when people can’t keep their heads above water, but addiction and mental health struggles can also lead to the same outcome.
It is impossible to point to one single cause for homelessness and the solutions are often even more obscure. In Warren County the Warren County Sheriff’s Office has begun to team up with Lifeskills, a local social services provider to attempt making meaningful changes in the lives of the unhoused in our area.
Sheriff Brett Hightower says that the department makes contact with many individuals in the area that are unhoused for a variety of situations.
“Not everybody who is living unsheltered right now wants to be sheltered. That’s kind of the the belief that people see them and think, they just don’t have a home. But we have worked with several of these encampments and trying to find some of these folks shelter. They just would rather not. They tell us that they would rather live the way they’re living.” Hightower said.
Because of this it can be difficult to find solutions in many cases because often long-term housing solutions offered by groups like the local HOTEL INC. are not necessarily going to be what they need immediately. This is where the partnership with Lifeskills comes into focus.
“We have a partnership with Life Skills and we have one of their therapists come out with us and we meet with them when we talk to them and we try to offer different ways that we would give assistance, try to help them get out of the wet, the cold and the in the weather that they might be in.” Hightower said.
The incorporation of social services in the initial contact can many times make situations with law enforcement less tense and in some cases can lead to better outcomes. This is because, as Crisis Intervention Specialist with Lifeskills Ashley Coles says they can offer help in the moment.
“They don’t have to be receiving life skills services to get help from our housing team. They don’t have to be working with a therapist. They don’t have to be working with the case manager. It is all about getting them from the streets into a home. So we definitely all work together, and I think that’s great that all the different community partners can come together.” Cole said.
