Mobile homeless raise concerns about newly hired homeless services coordinator

MOBILE, Alabama (WKRG) – As Mobile hired its first homeless services coordinator, the city’s homeless expressed their wishes under the new hire’s leadership.

Kendell Young started his new job as Mobile’s homeless services coordinator on Monday. He said his job will be to work with various outreach programs to combat homelessness in Mobile.

Young recently traveled to Houston, Texas, along with other city leaders to take notes on how Harris County officials were tackling their homeless problem.

“It won’t happen overnight, but it will be a process,” Young said.

Meanwhile, Chad Smith, a homeless man from downtown Mobile, said he hopes help will come soon because he doesn’t know where he will sleep each night.

“We have nowhere to sleep because we have to hide to sleep or the police will catch us,” Smith said.

According to Curtis Graves, deputy director of public safety, the Homeless Outreach Team has been in the works for two years.

The team consists of two uniformed police officers who are responsible for the homeless population.

City officials said the team may expand in the future, but currently two officers would suffice.

“To achieve this, we must act with all our strength and with all our rigor,” Graves said.

Graves said that while they strive to take the “olive branch” approach, a “hammer approach” may be needed for homeless people who refuse services.

“And if they refuse those services, we will dig a little deeper to find out why they are homeless,” Graves said.

However, it is not that easy, says another homeless person who wishes to remain anonymous.

“You apply for benefits and you have to wait three months before you get anything,” the man said. “That’s three months of sitting around and starving.”

The two homeless people WKRG spoke to say it is not easy to find a job either.

“We have no IDs, no Social Security cards and of course no money to get any of that,” Smith said.

Young said part of his plan is to inform and educate the homeless.

“The more we can educate the community, the more we can educate individuals, the more resources can be distributed to them to help them,” Young said.

Young estimates that between 620 and 650 people are homeless in the city, according to a “Point in Time” survey conducted by Housing First Inc. Young said these surveys are conducted every year in the last week of January.

“The number has generally stayed about the same here in Mobile over the last 10 years,” Young said.

Young brought experience from the Waterfront Rescue Mission and Housing First Inc.