Community Corner

Volunteers Share Stories Of Reaching Out To Bethesda's Homeless

'These are people who are trying to survive.'

In the early morning hours armed with flashlights to light their way, a group of dedicated volunteers headed out last week to gather information from the men and women who called Bethesda’s streets their home.

The effort, lead locally by was a part of the 100,000 Homes Campaign, a nationwide effort aimed to house 100,000 of the most vulnerable homeless individuals by July of 2013. The campaign tasks communities with creating a by-name registry of homeless individuals in order to help service providers match them with resources and assist them into permanent housing.

Volunteers joined last week’s “registry week” effort from community groups, churches, governmental offices like the , and local leadership organizations like the and the Others worked with county advocacy groups, volunteered with Bethesda Cares, or wanted to join in  the effort as individuals.

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The volunteers brought with them socks, thermoses of hot water and packets of coffee to offer to the men and women they encountered. Their first challenge was waking up the person they found sleeping in the streets or at the Bethesda Metro station. The effort began well before dawn, before the men and women became mobile for the day and potentially difficult to track down.

“It’s early in the morning, and people are still sleeping,” said Katie Slye-Griffin, executive director of NAMI Montgomery County, as she volunteered with the effort. “You wouldn’t want to be woken up from your bed at 4 a.m., and neither did they.”

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Slye-Griffin and other volunteers shared their stories at a community presentation Monday, during which Bethesda Cares

If the person was willing to participate in the survey, the volunteers – traveling in groups of three or four – began the process of collecting information. They asked those they met--Are you a veteran? Have you ever been diagnosed with a mental illness? Have you ever participated in a substance abuse program?

For Slye-Griffin, it was eye-opening to do outreach work with the chronically homeless – a group that typically doesn’t come looking for social services and may have daunting barriers including mental illness or substance addiction. One man told her because he was schizophrenic, housing for him “wouldn’t work.”

Another, who was sleeping outdoors, told her he wasn't homeless.

“These are people we could be getting to, but are so disheartened because of the number of times they’ve been through the ringer,” Slye-Griffin said. “These were sick individuals – you definitely got the sense they’ve been through this before. You got the sense they thought it was not going to work.”

Volunteers encountered the homeless sleeping in the Bethesda Metro station, in downtown Bethesda parking garages, north along Rockville Pike and east in portions of Silver Spring.

At the Metro, volunteers said there seemed to be a sense of community among the homeless who slept there. “They seemed to know who to sleep with – they seemed to trust each other,” said Kim Clendenin, a Bethesda Cares volunteer who participated in the canvas.

About 40 of the 54 people contacted by volunteers were willing to participate. But even those who didn’t take part were grateful for the basic necessities provided to them by the groups, Slye-Griffin said.

“I did not ever feel at risk, ever,” Slye-Griffin said. “These are people who are trying to survive.”


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