About a month ago, Amanda Siefert noticed someone was living in a tent adjacent to her Greenwood property. Though on her neighbor’s land, she is concerned about a person living just feet from her home. She would like the city to create an ordinance addressing issues like this, and to offer more suitable options for those struggling with homelessness.
About a month ago, the blue tent appeared next to the fence line.
Amanda Siefert was concerned. The tent was on her neighbor’s property but up against her fence — just feet from the gate into her backyard. Someone was living there; Siefert could hear them moving around at night. One evening, they could hear an argument from the other side of the fence.
Reaching out to Greenwood city officials, then police, she was told repeatedly there was nothing that could be done about the person living in the tent. The city had no ordinances against it.
How could that be, Siefert asked.
“We are a very good community. Why haven’t we addressed this yet?” she said.
Homelessness has been an ever-present problem facing Johnson County, and communities all over the country, for years. But with ongoing economic struggles for people, data suggests that the problem has escalated.
“We are feeling the need. It seems like we’re getting a lot more calls for people who are at risk of being homeless,” said Nancy Plake, executive director of the United Way of Johnson County. “I know that the requests for assistance are a lot larger, because the rent has gone up in our county, and everyplace.”
Difficult to count
Nailing down the severity of homelessness in the county is difficult, Plake said. With no homeless shelters in the county, officials have to rely on other ways to monitor an issue that often is unseen.
According to the most recent data from the Point In Time count, in which local officials canvassed the community to record how many people were without a permanent home, the county recorded 15 people who were homeless.
But that severely undercounts the issue.
“We started studying this in 2014, because our helpline calls were increasingly from people who were at risk of being homeless. But it is hard to get that information, because it’s hidden in our community,” Plake said.
From Jan. 1 to September 30, 2019 — the last year before funding was earmarked specifically for pandemic relief — the agency distributed $125,703.85 to 332 households to help with housing, emergency shelter, hotels and mortgage assistance, according to data from the United Way.
For the same time frame in 2022, the agency has distributed more than $240,817.08 for 365 households. The numbers indicate a 90% increase in funding provided, with only a 10% increase in people helped.
“Our conclusion was that the amount of assistance has gone up, almost doubled, but the number of households we’ve helped has not gone up significantly. The reason is, we’re all running out of money. We can’t help more people because we’re spending more money on people,” Plake said.
Without any shelters, local officials have to take advantage of other tools to help those experiencing homelessness. Agencies such as No Place to Call Home, a part of the United Way, and KIC-IT help provide resources and case management allowing people to avoid homelessness. The United Way is also sometimes able to put people into hotels temporarily until people can find stable housing.
“One of our goals is really to try and make sure we keep people housed, if we are able to,” Plake said. “No Place to Call Home is specifically for those individuals who want to go into case management, because we don’t want to help them stay out of eviction, but then they don’t have a plan for the next month.”
As communities throughout the county address homelessness, it has largely been nonprofit organizations, township trustee offices and churches who have been the primary vehicles for providing people with assistance and help.
For example, in Greenwood, when the city is made aware of someone struggling to find shelter, they are referred to those organizations, said Mayor Mark Myers.
“We’ve talked about this county-wide for years. If you look around the county, and nationwide, it’s the nonprofit organizations that do most of the work when putting together a place for homeless people,” he said. “All we can do when we find out there is a problem is refer them to the township trustees, or the United Way, to see if they can help these people.”
Part of the difficulty, though, is finding people who are without homes. His office has worked with the police department to keep track of areas that, in the past, have served as camps for the homeless have been abandoned.
“We have looked around, and we’ve had places in the past where people were putting up tents. They’re not there anymore. I just checked with my police chief, and if they are camping out somewhere in the city, they’ve moved and we don’t know where they’re at,” Myers said.
City officials are aware of the concerns raised by Siefert. Unfortunately, they do not have many options for people who are living in tents or other makeshift structures on private property, if they have permission.
“There’s no way to regulate who can or cannot put up a tent on private property,” Myers said. ”I know the (city) council has talked about it, maybe putting a time period where it could be up, but right now, there’s nothing we can do. They’re legally there, not trespassing.”
Growing problem
Siefert would like to see such a lack of municipal options fixed. When the tent appeared in her neighbor’s backyard, she reached out to Greenwood’s code enforcement office for help.
“I figured surely there has to be some kind of ordinance about this,” she said. “Code enforcement referred me to planning and zoning, who referred me to (police) dispatch.”
Speaking with a police officer, she described her situation. Because there is no city ordinance, and the tent is on private property, there is nothing they could do.
“My neighbor has given him permission, and there’s no ordinance against his living on residential property, he is allowed to remain there,” she said.
Siefert is understanding of those who have become homeless. But the answer is not to have them living in tents in backyards — local officials need to have a way to help those people, she said.
She’s concerned about her family, and the safety of her two teenage daughters. Her hope would that the city put an ordinance in place prohibiting people to live in tents or dwellings that are not deemed habitable such as sheds and garages.
She also wants the ordinance to implement fines for the homeowners that have allowed people to live on their land.
“I want to know what the city is doing to help these people,” she said. “Not only am I concerned about the safety of my family, but of these people as well.”
