Latest Survey Expected to Show: Scores Are Homeless in Carroll County

How much homelessness is a caring community willing to accept or tolerate?

In Carroll County the correct answer no doubt should be something less than the 130 or so men, women and children who, in annual surveys, say they have no place to call home.

Local social service organizations conducted the latest head count at the end of January. The groups are in the process of finalizing results now. A new number should be available late this month.

“The figure may be down a bit from past years because the county received an extra $400,000 in federal stimulus money last year to help with temporary housing,” said county grants manager Colleen Baumgartner. 

But fluctuations—from changes in economic conditions or funding levels—tend to be modest. Overall, homelessness levels remain fairly constant because the main causes are such intractable problems as substance abuse and mental illness.

Indeed, some area residents, typically in letters to news editors, still question the wisdom of emptying mental hospitals. It was a process called "de-institutionalization," conducted over the past four decades or more. The goals were to stop warehousing people in sometimes shabby conditions and to help them have better, more independent lives at lower cost to taxpayers.

Critics have maintained that too many mentally ill people were merely dumped on the streets.

That lingering argument resonates strongly in the Eldersburg-Sykesville area since it is home to Springfield Hospital Center. The state mental health facility still accommodates about 500 people. But that is a drastic reduction from its peak of more than 3,000 in the middle of the last century.

To suggest de-institutionalization should not have occurred is just wrong, said Molly Coffay, vice president and general counsel of Prologue Inc. “It’s going the right way—that they (the institutions) are closing, and people are less likely to be there for long periods of time,” she said.

Coffay does agree, however, with another common argument: Communities have not done enough to provide the services those with mental illnesses need to live independently outside of institutions.

Prologue, located on Timdan Court, is one of the local organizations providing some of those community services, but much more are needed, Coffay said.

As an example, she and Deborah Sauers, Prologue’s Carroll County director, explained how the organization provides a “residential rehabilitation program” for 27 people. The goal is to help them acquire the necessary skills to transition to a reduced level of need and then move to “supportive housing.”

But transitions remain difficult because there is a lack of affordable housing and public transportation in Carroll County, the Prologue leaders say. They note that their organization will soon begin renovating a small apartment building to combat, in some degree, the housing shortage.

Baumgartner pointed out that Carroll County, considered relatively small and affluent by the federal government, receives a grant for permanent housing of just one disabled person per year.

Some in the mental health field are of the opinion that de-institutionalization was the right thing to do, but that it has been poorly executed. One research paper on the subject, by Drs.  H. Robert Lamb and Leona Bachrach, summarized it this way: 

“Where community services have been available and comprehensive, most persons with severe mental illness have significantly benefited. On the other hand, there have been unintended consequences of deinstitutionalization—a new generation of uninstitutionalized persons who have severe mental illness, who are homeless, or who have been criminalized and who present significant challenges to service systems.

 “Among the lessons learned from de-institutionalization are that successful de-institutionalization involves more than simply changing the locus of care; that service planning must be tailored to the needs of each individual; that hospital care must be available for those who need it; that services must be culturally relevant; that severely mentally ill persons must be involved in their service planning; that service systems must not be restricted by preconceived ideology; and that continuity of care must be achieved.”

Nevertheless, many social service organizations worry that the situation could get worse before it gets better, in part because pressure is mounting on all levels of government to cut spending.

Carroll County homeless count

SOURCE : County point-in-time survey

2005

126

2007

125

2009

144

2010

129

Reported disability type among 81 adult disabled homeless in 2010

Mental health

58 percent

Alcohol abuse

37 percent

Substance abuse

37 percent

Physical-medical

32 percent

Developmental

5 percent

Other

6 percent

How you can fight homelessness: C-A-R-E

Contribute

Clothing, food, money and more to helping organizations.

Advocate

For positive policy and program changes at the local, state and national levels.

Reach out

By volunteering your time.

Educate

Yourself and others by staying abreast of developments on the problem.