The haggard man laid the trail mix, Rice Krispies Popcorn Crunch, cans of sweet corn and Bumble Bee tuna that would be his food for the day onto the grass in front of him. The provisions are often smaller, the man said through worn and crooked teeth.
"This is a big meal," 48-year-old Louie Overmyer said.
Overmyer has made his life's work helping other homeless people, even though he goes to the Salvation Army every day to collect his own food.
He said that not drinking alcohol, taking drugs or having a serious mental ilness has set him apart and allowed him to help out his fellow homelss.
Overmyer said he collects food donations all over the Valley and walks or tries to get spare change to take the bus to shelters and social service centers, where he hands them out to the needy. He also cooks Christmas dinners. He said that he will never panhandle for money, even though others sometimes do.
"I ain't no panhandling fool," he said.
A former general contractor, Overmyer arrived in Tempe seven years ago. He said he got into trouble with the police, who were suspicious that he may have been a drug dealer. He said he was arrested and lost his job, truck and personal identification.
"I've been a victim of the system," Overmyer said.
The system takes inventory
A Maricopa Association of Governments (MAG) homeless task force released a plan at a meeting Feb. 14 to tackle the issue of homelessness, according to Donna Hurdle, the leader of the homeless youth workgroup.
Hurdle, an ASU social work professor, said that eight workgroups representing different segments of the homeless population have been meeting for about a year.
Every year, city governments meet to identify "cross-cutting" issues for a particular social problem in order to provide guidance to municipalities, Hurdle said. This year, MAG devised broad guidelines focusing on ending homelessness, a year after a major federal Housing and Urban Development (HUD) grant was secured for homelessness.
"The question is how we're going to do it," Hurdle said.
According to Hurdle, one of the biggest ideas to be implemented is the creation of a large human services campus in Central Phoenix that would provide shelters, mental health, and other necessary services under one roof. However, critics argue that each municipality is best equipped to handle its own problems, and services should be decentralized so the homeless in areas like Tempe have better access to them.
"I don't think it's addressed very well," Hurdle said of centralization versus decentralization. "There are so many issues...The plan was looking at [homelessness] from a much larger [perspective]."
The regional focus of the plan instead zoomed in on "specific populations" within the whole region, and tried to create an atmosphere of openness that Tempe has begun to embrace, MAG homeless planner Charlene Moran-Flaherty said. She added that Tempe is taking a step into the right direction.
"We steered clear of pointing fingers at any one community," Flaherty said. "We want buy-in from cities and towns, as opposed to them feeling attacked."
According to Flaherty, Tempe hired a new homeless coordinator and allowed the zoning for the new Tumbleweed Day Resource Center at First Congregational Church for youth on the street. And for the first time, Tempe committed to participate in an annual regional count of homeless people on the street.
Two sweeping surveys of Maricopa County's homeless population were conducted Thursday by Phoenix metropolitan-area officials, according to state homeless coordinator Rebecca Bair.
The results will be compiled into a detailed report that will be presented before various state officials and made publicly available to interested services, people and institutions, Bair said.
The sum of counts of used shelter beds and of homeless people on the street should equal an estimate of the total homeless population, she said.
The "Point-in-Time" survey program that Bair coordinated entailed mailing surveys a week ahead of time, so that agencies could receive them and complete them on Feb. 27, the scheduled count day. At the same time, municipalities organized counts of homeless living on the streets in their areas.
Tony Johnson of Mesa's House of Refuge said that portions of the Mesa police conducted their street count by searching for people around a riverbed near Country Club the previous year.
According to Bair, the counts of homeless people in each individual community will have to be added together at the end for both survey types.
"We're trying to get communities to work together more," Flaherty said.
Two large problems Flaherty identified were a lack of affordable housing and a lack of funding - the gateway to expanding services. She said if she were a person with a drug addiction, she would have difficulty getting help.
"There's very few options I'd have," Flaherty said. "They might tell me to come back in two weeks. That's not how you treat people who are addicted."
Removing barriers to accessing services is another goal, she said. Medical information requirements are too complicated for many who need services, particularly the mentally ill.
"You have to not be disabled to collect benefits," Flaherty said.
Young people are another great problem, she added.
"The 18-24 group is a real tough one," Flaherty said. "They're still young people and services in the shelter don't meet their needs. That's a real gray area."
Documenting their plight
A member of Hurdle's workgroup, social work professor Bart Miles, co-created a documentary film about homelessness called Street Life on Mill. Focusing primarily on the problem of younger homeless people, he said the deficiencies of Tempe's homeless care at the time show in the film.
Miles conducted the research for the film from the Fall 2001 to Spring 2002 semester while he was finishing his doctoral degree at ASU. He tried to involve a diverse group of homeless people and other Tempe citizens in making his documentary.
"The participants themselves were actively involved in the research project," Miles said.
Working with fellow professor Stephen Sills, Miles edited down 45 hours of raw footage to a one-hour presentation. Music made by some of the homeless subjects was used in the background.
"A lot of the homeless are musically inclined," Miles said.
The film was shown numerous times and changed a lot of people's minds about the homeless, Miles said. The younger homeless population was a major focus of the documentary.
"Most of the research focuses on neglect and abuse at home," Miles said. "The minor population - teenagers - will hit the streets when they're 18."
Despite a visible older population on Mill Avenue, young people make up the single largest segment of the homeless population, Miles said. Many are runaways or young adults who were formerly under the care of Child Protective Services.
ASU social work professor Stephanie Brzuzy conducted a survey for Tempe Community Council's Homeless Task Force that revealed that young adults aged 18 to 23 make up 40 percent of the total Tempe homeless population.
The Tumbleweed drop-in center has provided daytime services for the youth on the street, according to Miles. However, he added that "anti-homeless" ordinances against aggressive panhandling, urban camping and sidewalk sitting have created difficulties unique to the Tempe homeless.
"That law, matched with the fact that the city provides no [overnight] shelter, means it's against the law to be homeless in Tempe," Miles said.
Tempe Mayor Neil Giuliano has made comments that he does not want to build shelters, according to Miles. Instead, over $300,000 has been paid to contract services from agencies outside the city. Getting the proper zoning for the Tempe Tumbleweed day center took some time.
The city is also relying on organizations like Tempe United Methodist Church, located on the ASU campus, to provide showers and other services. According to Miles, the Salvation Army plays a large role in providing food and rehabilitation to the homeless as well.
The Salvation Army Tempe Corps, located at 714 S. Myrtle Ave., serves approximately 700 to 800 food bags per month, according to social services coordinator Sean Baldwin. The office, located near Mill Avenue and ASU, also hands out hygiene products and other necessary items.
"In the end the primary goal is to help them achieve stabilization," Baldwin said.
Serving a primarily older segment of the population, the organization also provides rental assistance, furniture and other help necessary to get the homeless into a residence of their own, according to Baldwin. He said Tempe was beginning to make long-range changes to increase services for the homeless.
"We need more," Baldwin said. "And that's starting to take place."
Nicole Saidi is the Content Editor of the Web Devil. Reach her at nicole.saidi@asu.edu.
