Phillip Caldroney listens to his Walkman under a small awning on a hot June day in Durham, one of approximately 175 people who call the red-brick Urban Ministries shelter home on a given day, one of whom say they were turned from their beds by circumstance, addictions or broken relationships.
This past year, the number of homeless in Durham increased by nine percent, in line with national trends and the increased closures of state mental health facilities, said Edy Thompson, director of the 10-Year Results Plan to End Homelessness in Durham.
Because there is no registry to declare homelessness, the number fluctuates from night to night. On a recent Point in Time count, an in-person survey done by volunteers and law enforcement agents, the count totaled 590: 412 men, 105 women and 73 children. Of those, approximately two-thirds have substance abuse problems and more than 10 percent are HIV positive.
But homelessness is not limited to a certain personality or background, as echoed through the warnings of those at Urban Ministries, the largest shelter in Durham.
"Drugs are an equal-opportunity employer," Caldroney said. "I come from a very wealthy background, and [homelessness] happened to me."
Narcotics, disabilities and familial issues drive people from normal lives into a cycle of homelessness and despair, Urban Ministries' residents said.
"My ex kicked me out... and then refused to give me anything out of a 25-year relationship," said Claudette Daniels, who recently came to the shelter from western North Carolina. "If I could've gotten a lawyer and could've gotten what was rightfully mine out of the relationship... I wouldn't be in the situation I'm in."
Last year, Durham began a 10-year plan to eliminate homelessness by concentrating on diminishing the effects of problem situations, Thompson said. This year, she helped raise $1.6 million-through corporate sponsorship and voluntary donations-to fight homelessness.
"We're going to end homelessness in 10 years, and when we say 'end homelessness' we say 'end homelessness' as it's being practiced and treated today," she said. "We're going to end the practice of homelessness and start the process of helping people be stable inside communities instead of outside on the street."
The foundation has made several focus groups with experts determined to work towards solutions for prevention, job training and insufficient permanent housing, among other major concentrations, Thompson said. Currently, they are working to educate the community, which suffers from many misconceptions, among them a tendency to link the homeless with crime and panhandling.
What Durham lacks is an escape from the shelter, with severely limited transitional bed space necessary before people can truly become independent and self-sufficient, Thompson said.
She said part of the problem is disproportionate resource use by the chronically homeless, who only account for approximately 10 percent of the population of homeless yet drain 70 percent of the resources.
Issues related to homeless youth also have yet to be tackled, occasionally leading them to gangs and subsequent crime in their search for a stable community, she added.
"There are a lot of young men coming here," said Michael Wilson, an Urban Ministries resident. "[The shelter] don't provide no kind of outreach for them-no one to guide and lead them around here."
Wilson added that he still tries to do his part and help out in whatever way possible, though his efforts can only extend so far, as he along with many others cannot yet leave the shelter because of a lack of financial stability.
Wilson, along with others, said they are grateful for the shelter's programs and accessibility and give back when possible.
Though Urban Ministries' bleak exterior may make it seem less inviting, residents who tout their time sober and emanate a sense of hope and excitement for the future credit some of the shelter's recovery programs for changes they have made to their lives.
"Life is what you make it-you get lemons you make lemonade," said Maurice Worley, another Urban Ministries resident. "My great grandma is 99. She said, 'Baby you can be in the dirt, but you don't wallow in it-get up and then move on.'"
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