Homelessness in Birmingham
Homelessness in Birmingham is a primary issue.
Mayor Bernard Kincaid assembled a Mayor's Commission to Prevent and End Chronic Homelessness, which drafted "Birmingham's Plan to End Chronic Homelessness", a 10-year action plan aimed at expanding housing options, improving access to support services, updating public policies, and mobilizing community awareness and volunteerism. The plan was adopted by the commission and submitted to the city in May 2007. According to Reverend Lawton Higgs, Sr of the Church of the Reconciler, a Methodist congregation that directly engages Birmingham's homeless, efforts to implement the 10-year plan stalled almost immediately.
One event which aims to implement several of the plan's recommendations is Project Homeless Connect, an annual one-day event at Boutwell Auditorium bringing together numerous agencies and volunteers to provide services such as issuing photo identifications, preparing tax returns, resolving legal disputes and providing medical examinations, haircuts, massages and meals. 518 individuals received help in the first event in April 2008 and at least 650 were helped in 2009.
In a January 2012 survey, volunteers for One Roof (formerly Metropolitan Birmingham Services for the Homeless) found a total of 1,707 homeless individuals in the Birmingham area. Of those, 662 were residing in transitional shelters and 347 were sleeping in emergency shelters, leaving 698 unsheltered homeless living on the streets. Among those unsheltered, 347 were considered "chronically homeless", meaning that they have been living on the streets or in shelters for more than a year, or have been homeless four or more times in three years, with a physical, mental or developmental disability or substance addiction impairing their efforts to find a permanent home.
In all, the volunteers found that 717 of the people they interviewed had signs of severe mental illness and 894 were chronic substance abusers. 175 of the homeless were war veterans and 132 were living with HIV/AIDS. They found 25 homeless minors and 191 homeless families with dependent children.
Homeless shelters
- Brother Bryan Mission
- Changed Lives Christian Center
- Firehouse Mission
- First Light
- Interfaith Hospitality House
- Jimmie Hale Mission
- Pathways
- Safe Haven
- Salvation Army Birmingham Area Command
- St Benedict's Veterans Center
- The Foundry
Service providers
References
- "House it going?" (May 10, 2007) Birmingham Weekly
- Garrison, Greg (May 4, 2008) "Railroad Park disrupts homeless; police overreact, activists say." The Birmingham News
- Gray, Jeremy (October 18, 2012) "A snapshot of the Birmingham area's homeless population." The Birmingham News