'You're old. Go in a corner and die': Seniors left homeless with few shelter options
Jessica Boehm,
AZCentral | The Arizona Republic
Fri, January 28, 2022
Kasey Dungan, on Jan. 20, 2022, in Phoenix, Ariz., talks about how she and her dog Sandy ended up homeless on the street for the first time in their lives.
Corrections & Clarifications: A previous version of this article incorrectly stated the amount of flexible funding over three years in Maricopa County's deal with the Human Services Campus. In the deal, the county would provide $3 million.
Kasey Dungan sat in her wheelchair on the corner of 12th Avenue and Madison Street, in the middle of the state's largest homeless encampment, her 10-year-old dachshund Sandy cowering underneath her.
Last Wednesday was the 73-year-old's second night homeless. She spent her first night at HonorHealth John C. Lincoln Medical Center in Sunnyslope with a kidney infection.
The hospital discharged her Wednesday morning, and a social worker offered to call her a ride to Central Arizona Shelter Services, the 500-bed homeless shelter near downtown Phoenix.
"She said that if I didn't go to CASS and stayed on the street that I would be beat up and that those people were terrible and they would steal everything," Dungan said.
Still, she refused. She'd been to the Human Services Campus, where CASS is located, once before to have a procedure at the low-cost dental provider on the campus.
She remembered the lines of tents outside the campus where hundreds of people sleep every night. The thought of staying there terrified her, she said.
She searched through Sunnyslope to see if there was anywhere else for her and Sandy to stay. But she quickly realized CASS was her only emergency option.
Dungan and Sandy took a bus to the Human Services Campus, just south of downtown Phoenix. But by the time they made it to the campus welcome center at 6:30 p.m., all of the women's beds were full.
The sun had set, and her only option was the street.
"I felt like there was nothing there for me. They just want to say, 'Well you're old. Go in a corner and die,'" Dungan said through tears.
Elderly, sick and homeless
Dungan's situation isn't unique.
Human Services Campus Executive Director Amy Schwabenlender said people arrive at the campus from hospitals at least once per day, if not more often.
"My thing would be, why do we let hospitals discharge people into homelessness?" Schwabenlender said.
The simple answer is, hospitals are full and they're not required to keep people if they don't have an emergency medical situation.
A spokesperson from HonorHealth John C. Lincoln Medical Center said the hospital works with its partners to provide care navigation for people who are homeless. The navigation team talks to the patient and arranges transportation to "respite care, shelter services or other types of lodging."
Dungan opted out of the hospital's offer to take her to CASS. If she hadn't, there may have been a bed available for her.
But by the time she arrived at the Human Services Campus at 6:30 p.m., after realizing there were no other shelter options, the shelter was full.
Every day, people are turned away from CASS and other shelters across metro Phoenix because there are no more beds.
Metro Phoenix has fewer than 2,000 emergency shelter beds and more than 7,400 people experiencing homelessness, according to the last point-in-time count in 2020.
Experts predict the true number of people experiencing homelessness is much higher now. Maricopa Association of Governments held its annual point-in-time count Tuesday and will release the updated numbers in February.
'We're not lazy': What people experiencing homelessness are saying in annual count
Increasingly, people arriving at CASS look like Dungan. They are older, experiencing homelessness for the first time and have medical conditions.
About a third of people who stayed at CASS in December were 55 or older, CASS CEO Lisa Glow said.
A recent CASS survey of clients 55 and older found that 86% of them have a medical condition and 63% have a mobility impairment.
During the first two years of the pandemic, Phoenix provided CASS with CARES Act funding to rent 65 rooms in a north Phoenix hotel, where it placed the most vulnerable older adults in private rooms with their own bathrooms. The organization later expanded the program with 20 additional rooms.
The temporary project ran out of funding late last year, but Phoenix and the Arizona Department of Housing provided funds for CASS to purchase and rehabilitate a hotel in northwest Phoenix for a permanent shelter for older adults.
The new shelter, dubbed "Project Haven" won't be open until the end of this year at the earliest.
"We are so eager to get the Project Haven hotel open. People are already asking to go there ... but we've got to figure out some interim solutions," Glow said.
She said she was disappointed to hear that Dungan was turned away from shelter last week and called on the homelessness service system as a whole to get more creative and find ways to not turn people out to the streets when shelters fill up.
"The safety net has to get stronger for people like this woman who is elderly and just released from the hospital," Glow said.
Kasey Dungan, on Jan. 20, 2022, in Phoenix, Ariz., cries as she talks about how she and her dog ended up homeless for the first time in their lives.
A lucky break
Dungan didn't end up staying on the street last week.
Community advocate Stacey Champion, who was visiting the encampment around the Human Services Campus to drop off supplies, saw Dungan crying in her wheelchair.
Champion, who frequently spends time in the encampment, said she didn't believe Dungan and Sandy were safe staying there. After unsuccessfully trying to get Dungan into the shelter, she paid for her to stay in a hotel in midtown Phoenix.
Champion started a crowdfunding link through her Twitter account and has been able to keep Dungan in the hotel while she tries to find her long-term housing.
"She is an angel from heaven. She told me, 'I'm not going to leave you here.' She just instantly made me feel like somebody cared about me," Dungan said.
Dungan became homeless last year after a falling out with her daughter. She stayed with a friend for a few months before ending up in a budget hotel in northwest Phoenix.
Last week, she ran out of money. A family member is rehabbing a trailer for her in Ashfork, but it's not finished, she said. Dungan was hoping to find a safe place where she could stay for a few weeks until she can move.
"There's need to be more help out there. There needs to be somebody who cares about us," she said.
Fri, January 28, 2022
Kasey Dungan, on Jan. 20, 2022, in Phoenix, Ariz., talks about how she and her dog Sandy ended up homeless on the street for the first time in their lives.
Corrections & Clarifications: A previous version of this article incorrectly stated the amount of flexible funding over three years in Maricopa County's deal with the Human Services Campus. In the deal, the county would provide $3 million.
Kasey Dungan sat in her wheelchair on the corner of 12th Avenue and Madison Street, in the middle of the state's largest homeless encampment, her 10-year-old dachshund Sandy cowering underneath her.
Last Wednesday was the 73-year-old's second night homeless. She spent her first night at HonorHealth John C. Lincoln Medical Center in Sunnyslope with a kidney infection.
The hospital discharged her Wednesday morning, and a social worker offered to call her a ride to Central Arizona Shelter Services, the 500-bed homeless shelter near downtown Phoenix.
"She said that if I didn't go to CASS and stayed on the street that I would be beat up and that those people were terrible and they would steal everything," Dungan said.
Still, she refused. She'd been to the Human Services Campus, where CASS is located, once before to have a procedure at the low-cost dental provider on the campus.
She remembered the lines of tents outside the campus where hundreds of people sleep every night. The thought of staying there terrified her, she said.
She searched through Sunnyslope to see if there was anywhere else for her and Sandy to stay. But she quickly realized CASS was her only emergency option.
Dungan and Sandy took a bus to the Human Services Campus, just south of downtown Phoenix. But by the time they made it to the campus welcome center at 6:30 p.m., all of the women's beds were full.
The sun had set, and her only option was the street.
"I felt like there was nothing there for me. They just want to say, 'Well you're old. Go in a corner and die,'" Dungan said through tears.
Elderly, sick and homeless
Dungan's situation isn't unique.
Human Services Campus Executive Director Amy Schwabenlender said people arrive at the campus from hospitals at least once per day, if not more often.
"My thing would be, why do we let hospitals discharge people into homelessness?" Schwabenlender said.
The simple answer is, hospitals are full and they're not required to keep people if they don't have an emergency medical situation.
A spokesperson from HonorHealth John C. Lincoln Medical Center said the hospital works with its partners to provide care navigation for people who are homeless. The navigation team talks to the patient and arranges transportation to "respite care, shelter services or other types of lodging."
Dungan opted out of the hospital's offer to take her to CASS. If she hadn't, there may have been a bed available for her.
But by the time she arrived at the Human Services Campus at 6:30 p.m., after realizing there were no other shelter options, the shelter was full.
Every day, people are turned away from CASS and other shelters across metro Phoenix because there are no more beds.
Metro Phoenix has fewer than 2,000 emergency shelter beds and more than 7,400 people experiencing homelessness, according to the last point-in-time count in 2020.
Experts predict the true number of people experiencing homelessness is much higher now. Maricopa Association of Governments held its annual point-in-time count Tuesday and will release the updated numbers in February.
'We're not lazy': What people experiencing homelessness are saying in annual count
Increasingly, people arriving at CASS look like Dungan. They are older, experiencing homelessness for the first time and have medical conditions.
About a third of people who stayed at CASS in December were 55 or older, CASS CEO Lisa Glow said.
A recent CASS survey of clients 55 and older found that 86% of them have a medical condition and 63% have a mobility impairment.
During the first two years of the pandemic, Phoenix provided CASS with CARES Act funding to rent 65 rooms in a north Phoenix hotel, where it placed the most vulnerable older adults in private rooms with their own bathrooms. The organization later expanded the program with 20 additional rooms.
The temporary project ran out of funding late last year, but Phoenix and the Arizona Department of Housing provided funds for CASS to purchase and rehabilitate a hotel in northwest Phoenix for a permanent shelter for older adults.
The new shelter, dubbed "Project Haven" won't be open until the end of this year at the earliest.
"We are so eager to get the Project Haven hotel open. People are already asking to go there ... but we've got to figure out some interim solutions," Glow said.
She said she was disappointed to hear that Dungan was turned away from shelter last week and called on the homelessness service system as a whole to get more creative and find ways to not turn people out to the streets when shelters fill up.
"The safety net has to get stronger for people like this woman who is elderly and just released from the hospital," Glow said.
Kasey Dungan, on Jan. 20, 2022, in Phoenix, Ariz., cries as she talks about how she and her dog ended up homeless for the first time in their lives.
A lucky break
Dungan didn't end up staying on the street last week.
Community advocate Stacey Champion, who was visiting the encampment around the Human Services Campus to drop off supplies, saw Dungan crying in her wheelchair.
Champion, who frequently spends time in the encampment, said she didn't believe Dungan and Sandy were safe staying there. After unsuccessfully trying to get Dungan into the shelter, she paid for her to stay in a hotel in midtown Phoenix.
Champion started a crowdfunding link through her Twitter account and has been able to keep Dungan in the hotel while she tries to find her long-term housing.
"She is an angel from heaven. She told me, 'I'm not going to leave you here.' She just instantly made me feel like somebody cared about me," Dungan said.
Dungan became homeless last year after a falling out with her daughter. She stayed with a friend for a few months before ending up in a budget hotel in northwest Phoenix.
Last week, she ran out of money. A family member is rehabbing a trailer for her in Ashfork, but it's not finished, she said. Dungan was hoping to find a safe place where she could stay for a few weeks until she can move.
"There's need to be more help out there. There needs to be somebody who cares about us," she said.
Money galore, solutions sparse
Champion said she was relieved she found Dungan and could find a safe place for her to stay.
But sheltering homeless seniors shouldn't come down to chance meetings, she said.
She's pushing the city, county and homeless providers to offer hotel vouchers or other emergency overflow shelter for seniors and other vulnerable people who would not be safe sleeping on the street.
Jessica Spencer, who goes by Lefty, also does direct outreach to the homeless population. She said she's helped many people get into hotels for a few nights when they needed a safe place to stay. She also uses crowdfunding because the alternative — helping people go through the formal shelter assistance process — can take weeks.
More and more often, it's older adults that she finds needing assistance.
"Our disabled elders are just begin left out to dry," Spencer said. "I understand we can't house people forever, but we don't even have a temporary solution for people who are newly houseless."
Despite relying on crowdfunding, there's actually more money available to help people experiencing homelessness than ever because of federal COVID-19 stimulus packages.
Cumulatively, the city, county and state have allocated almost $100 million of federal relief funds to build new shelters. But those could take a year or more to get up and running.
Phoenix provided funds to purchase a sprung structure on the Human Services Campus that will add 100 beds to the campus. The heavy-duty tent-like building, which will have central air conditioning and heating, should be open this spring.
Maricopa County is currently inking a deal with the Human Services Campus to provide $3 million of flexible funding over three years that could be used to fund emergency hotel nights, Schwabenlender said.
It will also be used to fund other emergencies that can stand in the way of someone getting into shelter or long-term housing. For example, helping someone pay for car insurance so they can maintain a job and qualify for an apartment.
"We want to reduce barriers to housing," Schwabenlender said.
Coverage of housing insecurity on azcentral.com and in The Arizona Republic is supported by a grant from the Arizona Community Foundation.
Reach the reporter at jessica.boehm@gannett.com
Follow her on Twitter @jboehm_NEWS.
This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Phoenix homelessness: Sick, elderly people have few shelter options
This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Phoenix homelessness: Sick, elderly people have few shelter options
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