Rumors about homeless people being transported into town have run rampant the last several weeks with some blaming the people trying to help.

“The rumors abound are just making things worse and harder for us to do what we need to do to help people when we’re constantly having to combat the rumors and chit-chat here in town,” Audrain County Shelter Resource Center (ACSRC) Community Development Director Ravae Moore told the Ledger. “You wouldn’t believe some of the things I’ve heard about us and it’s absolutely ridiculous.”

The ACSRC runs a transitional housing program that started earlier this year and the group has operated an emergency shelter during winter months for a few years. Moore said she’s been told by a public official the program is attracting homeless people to Mexico. Other public officials have made statements about the center in a negative light during meetings. 

“Do we have people coming in? Sure,” Moore said. “If they qualify for transitional housing and we can help them we’re not going to turn them down. You can’t blame the problems Mexico and Audrain County are having with homeless people on the programs we have here any more than you could blame the Help Center Pantry for the hungry people.”

Moore said she cannot answer whether or not the population of homeless people has increased recently because those numbers are hard to get. With the passage of state laws banning sleeping on state rights of ways combined with the tearing down of old structures, Moore said homeless people are being exposed to the public. In the last year, the city has spent close to $100,000 helping property owners tear down dilapidated structures. Moore said a lot of homeless folks were using those buildings for shelter.

“When the city goes in and cuts down trees and removes brush you’re pulling them back into the public again,” Moore said. “You’re just seeing them more.”

Moore said the transitional housing program isn’t a free-for-all all house where anyone can just show up and stay. People in the program have to apply and be on a path toward getting permanent housing. About 40 percent of the person’s income goes towards the program to help pay for the utilities.

“When people come into transitional housing they have to financially invest in that as well,” Moore said. “It’s not we’re just letting people come here and live for free.”

There are strict rules to follow while in the program. Janelle Williams, treasurer for ACSRC said the program volunteers and staff are there for support but they also have to be a barrier if the person strays.

“There’s a fine line,” Williams said. “We still have to maintain certain expectations. For communal living to work there are certain things they have to be expected to do. We still have to enforce that and still play that role.”

Moore said it’s also discouraging to hear some people talk about the people the program is trying to help. Moore said recently she was told that some of the homeless people can, “Just go get a job at one of the manufacturing or warehouses in town and make more money than them.” Moore said to just imagine being a homeless person walking into a business looking for work.

“Would you go in there looking like that not having showered for a month?” Moore questioned. “Not having a haircut for God knows how long? Unable to brush their teeth every day. Where are they going to do that? Nobody is going to hire them looking like that so they are in a perpetual cycle of Hell.”

Moore said more empathy can be shown towards homeless people because in reality a lot of people reading this story are not that far away from it happening to them.

“We have to understand they are the same people we are, they just don’t have a home,” Moore said. “They’re not a special breed of people. They’ve just come upon hard times and they don’t have a home. A lot of us are one paycheck away from a cardboard box.”