Homelessness spreads

Dorisydell Flythe surfed the Internet at a public library looking for help for her suddenly homeless family.

She knows she's fortunate to have found that help and a safe place for herself and two teenage children at Palmetto House, a shelter for homeless families and individuals in Summerville. Other families aren't so lucky.

The word homeless often conjures images of an urban, single person with chronic problems. But according to a report released this month by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, families and people who live in rural and suburban areas experienced the largest increase in homelessness between 2007 and 2008. The report doesn't reflect the impact of the economic downturn in 2009 on homelessness.

Many suburban and rural families teeter on the edge of homelessness burdened by a complicated load of emotional, physical and financial problems, said Charlotte Carroll, Palmetto House's executive director.

Flythe said it was "the economy and slum lord" that pushed her over the edge.

She was working as a cook in Walterboro and renting a home there, she said. The place desperately needed repairs and the landlord refused to fix things. Eventually, she said, it became an unsafe place to live, and she had to leave.

The staff at Palmetto House is helping her start over. She's looking for a job, a new home and better life for her children.

Flythe's 15-year-old son, Jahvel Flythe, said at first he was "a little nervous" coming to a shelter. But the people have been nice, and now he's more at ease.

Her 18-year-old daughter, Chetara Lindsay, who will leave for college next month, said she feels better about leaving her family, knowing they're at Palmetto House. "I know they're safe here," she said.

Carroll said her program can house nine single women, six single men and three families at a time. It's not just about overnight housing, she said. People move in, and the average stay is 70 days.

"We help people really get on their feet," she said.

But she has to turn many people away because of a shortage of space, she said, and the problem is growing.

During the month of July 2008, she said, Palmetto House had to turn away 46 people requesting help. In just the first two weeks of July this year, the program had to turn away 52 people requesting help.

Staff members have a list of places to refer people when Palmetto House is full, she said. But on some recent days, "we were getting referrals from shelters we were referring to."

The HUD report found that the number of people in shelters was about the same in 2007 and 2008, but the number of those people who are members of families increased 9 percent, to a total of 516,700.

The report also found that the share of the sheltered homeless population in suburban and rural areas grew 23 percent in 2007 and 32 percent in 2008.

Although homelessness still is largely an urban problem, it's growing in rural and suburban areas. And that means people who never sought such services before are knocking on the doors of shelters looking for help.

Marta Rivera came to the Charleston-area from Oklahoma to be closer to her two children, who live with their father.

But her plans fell apart shortly after she arrived, and she landed at Palmetto House. In Oklahoma, she said, she had a job, a home and a car. Now, she's trying to rebuild her life with the physical and spiritual support she's finding through the program. When she first arrived, she said, "I was scared, a homeless shelter, oh my goodness."

Rivera is committed to rebuilding her life. She's been at the shelter for a little more than a week, and she's still surprised at the circumstances in which she finds herself. "I never thought, in a million years, I would be in this situation," she said.