NEIGHBORS
SANTAN SUN NEWS | NOVEMBER 17-30, 2018
CAMPOUT
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bus back to AZCEND. Clients are mostly on their own during the day. Some have case-management appointments or use the computers at AZCEND. Sherwood said he has spent a lot of time at a public library “to beat the heat.” He used the library’s computers for “social media, but also … to apply for jobs and Craigslist and to see what’s hiring in the area.” With the location changing each night, amenities like Wi-Fi and air-conditioning can vary widely, he said, but that’s a trifle. “For 90 days … to have food and shelter and to not worry. It’s so much easier to look for work and to stay working than to wonder about where you’re going to sleep or eat the next night.”
The problem
Phoenix had the largest homeless population in Maricopa County with 4,562 people, according to the Point-inTime Homeless Count analysis by the Maricopa Association of Governments. The East Valley ranked second, with 1,263 homeless individuals in 2018. Of those, 559 people weren’t sleeping in a shelter. The Point-in-Time count tallied both sheltered individuals, who have somewhere to sleep for the night, and unsheltered individuals. The number of unsheltered individuals in Maricopa County increased 27 percent, to 2,618 in 2018 from 2,059 in 2017. Since 2014, the number of unsheltered homeless people has increased 149 percent, according to the association.
Cronkite News
Tyler Larouchelle clowns around during a break in a program at AZCEND, the former Chandler Christian Community Center.
With no permanent shelters to house the homeless in Chandler, I-HELP is helping bridge the gap.
The program
In 2013, AZCEND, then known as Chandler Christian Community Center joined with For Our City Chandler, which coordinates volunteers and services in the city, to address homelessness. “Concerned citizens came together and said, ‘How can we work on this problem?’” said Gibson, the director of development at AZCEND. “And then they found this model, so AZCEND started using a very similar model and went to churches and community organizations.” From July 2016 through June 2017, more than 400 individuals slept in churches through the Chandler I-HELP
program for an average of 20 nights. AZCEND switched to a 90-day program to increase stability. “Now, the people that we have on our bed list are clients that are committed to being here every night and receiving case management,” said Roxanna Nava, the I-HELP coordinator at AZCEND. That way, “we can focus more on clients individually and their needs, and try to get them out of the crisis that they’re going through.” The number of clients in the I-HELP at any given time ranges from 15 to 25. In late July, there were 27 clients in AZCEND’s program. Nava said summer “is the time where every (shelter) is full,” because of the heat – including the Chandler I-HELP. Clients usually hear about the program
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by word-of-mouth or through referrals from other shelters that don’t have beds. When I-HELP was a drop-in program, “we had to turn people away,” Nava said. “Now it’s the same people who are committed. We do an intake process, we meet with them and go over the whole program and the requirements. That gives them the idea that, once we put you on the list, you have to be here every night, you have to be willing to receive the help that we have to offer.” The first step for many clients is applying for birth certificates, Social Security cards, driver’s licenses and other identification. “People lose many of those items in storage, or maybe in their last living situation they may not have gotten those when they left,” Myers said. “Once you’re on the streets, the amount of theft that goes on … their stuff is stolen many, many times. So, people on the street frequently need to get those replaced.” Clients also can list AZCEND’s address on job applications and receive mail there. Once they find a job, clients are required to convert 75 percent of their income into money orders, which they get back when they leave the program. That way, “you have money to get into the places that you’re going,” Sherwood said. “And that’s amazing.” Not every client stays in the program for the full 90 days. “It’s a 90-day program, but we try to get clients out of here (sooner),” Nava said. “And there’s clients that need a little bit extra time, so depending on each individual client and their circumstances, we’ll let them stay a little longer.” Connect with us on Facebook.
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