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Community Action agency works to home in on homeless

In his poem “No Possum, No Sop, No Taters,” Wallace Stevens writes, “The field is frozen. … It is deep January. The sky is hard. … It is … the savagest hollow of winter. …”

It’s suggestive of the situation of a man found living in a tent in the woods on the outskirts of Altoona on Wednesday evening during the Blair County Community Action Agency’s Point In Time — or PIT — count of unsheltered homeless people.

The count occurs throughout the nation under supervision of the Department of Housing and Urban Development in January because if you are living unsheltered at this time of year, you’re truly homeless, according to April Hileman, who supervised the PIT count for the agency.

“If you had a place to go, you would go there,” Hileman said.

The man, whom Hileman didn’t name, was one of four individuals discovered Wednesday during intermittent freezing rain by a dozen teams of three or four that fanned out over the county along planned routes to check out sites where homeless people would likely take refuge.

Those included patches of woods, especially near shopping centers where there are grocery stores and restaurants, abandoned buildings, stores open around-the-clock, under bridges and under pavilions and playground equipment in parks and in dugouts at baseball fields.

Four other household groups came to the agency’s office on Sixth Avenue to self-report and receive sleeping bags and backpacks with toiletries, food, flashlights and other useful items.

The man in the woods was camping out in an inexpensive, two-person tent on land formerly owned by his late grandfather, a situation that was neither a lark nor a romantic adventure, based on information from Hileman, who discovered the man as part of a search team with her husband, Fred.

“I couldn’t imagine what it was like a couple nights ago,” when the temperature reached zero, Fred said.

The Hilemans found him based on a tip from a man who overheard the Hilemans asking employees at a convenience store whether they knew of any homeless people in the area.

The tipster was a friend of the homeless man, concerned that the homeless man might die, April said.

The tipster described where the friend was camping, and the Hilemans followed his directions, then found footprints leading into the woods.

As they approached, shining a flashlight, the man shined a flashlight back toward them, Fred said.

The tent had been there since before the recent snow had fallen, and there was urine and feces visible, according to the Hilemans.

The bearded man is probably in his 30s, and he was guarded, even frightened, the Hilemans said.

“I assured him the cops weren’t coming,” April said.

He remained in his tent, but relaxed a little after April explained the purpose of their visit and said that they’d learned of him from his friend.

April remained a respectful distance from the entry.

The man had grown up in this area, but had lived and worked in Washington state and was looking to get back there to find employment, April said.

April invited him to visit the agency today so he could learn about helpful resources and was expecting him to take her up on the offer.

He accepted a backpack and sleeping bag Wednesday, but made it clear that he did not want her coming into the tent to hand them over.

“Just sit them there,” he told her.

“He did not want me invading his space,” April said.

Blair County Department of Social Services administrator Jim Hudak, department employee Ken Dean and Blair County commissioner and department liaison Bruce Erb rode together Wednesday on a route that included Hollidaysburg, Duncansville and East Freedom.

They didn’t find any homeless people at sites that included the alley behind the Blair County Courthouse, the Carriage House parking garage in Hollidaysburg, Canal Basin Park, a six-pack store and a convenience store in Hollidaysburg, a convenience store at the Meadows Intersection, the back of a nearby shopping center, a pavilion behind a church in Duncansville, the rear of a variety store in Newry, the Walmart shopping center in East Freedom and a nearby convenience store.

Last year, they’d encountered one homeless man, pointed out by an employee of the East Freedom convenience store, where he would buy and nurse a cup of coffee to while away the hours.

Despite his homelessness, the man had maintained employment at a fast food restaurant next door, the men said.

He’d come to the area from Maryland and had been staying with a friend or relative who had subsequently evicted him.

The county officials ad­mired the man’s resilience.

People become inventive and adaptable, and they look at their environment with a different focus than the rest of us, the officials said.

The PIT count is intended to help HUD and other agencies get a better handle on homelessness, according to a PIT count poster published by Community Action.

Lots of agencies with lots of brainpower work together to try to figure out solutions to the problem, Hudak said.

The PIT count mission triggers empathy, especially on icy nights like Wednesday, according to Hudak.

It’s really not hard to imagine circumstances that could send a normal life spiraling into homelessness, including substance abuse, a lost job or some other family crisis, according to Dean.

“(Then) you’re behind the eight-ball and out on the street,” he said.

You think, “there but for the grace of God …” Hudak said.

Mirror Staff Writer William Kibler is at 949-7038.

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