by Jerry Grillo
White County News
Chris sleeps in his car and doesn’t feel comfortable sharing his real name. He says he works, but he needs a few things, including a meal. That’s why he’s here behind the wheel of a 10-year-old sedan, idling in line with other vehicles filled with other forgotten people, all of them depending on the generosity of compassionate strangers.
This was part of the scene last Thursday, May 8, at His Hands and Feet Ministry Thrift Store in Cleveland, where a nimble organization called Street Exit hosted the first Homeless Services event. A slow-moving conga line of automobiles snaked around the building as volunteers brought bags of needed items — soap, toothpaste, water, food — to each.
“So, this tells us that there’s plenty of need,” said Mike Fisher, director of Street Exit, as he surveyed the scene. “This is what homelessness looks like in White County. They’re not living in mass encampments around here. They’re going to mostly be living in the woods, in small groups. But the largest percentage are people living in their cars.”
According to the last PIT count — that stands for Point in Time — there were 65 people living unsheltered in White County. A PIT count is a single snapshot of the number of people experiencing homelessness on a specific date. Typically done every other year, the last statewide PIT count was in January 2024. But even when the numbers are fresh, they’re usually wrong — it’s a lot of it is guesswork.
“It isn’t a physical headcount,” said Fisher. “But it gives us a baseline model to use as a guide. It isn’t reality.”
The reality is, 158 people were served last Thursday. Not all of them were unhoused people, but all were hungry, offering a glimpse of what local poverty looks like. Trying to meet the need was a cadre of about a dozen organizations, including Family Promise, Nacoochee Presbyterian, White County Family Connections, the Agape Project, and the White County Democratic Party, among others.
They were all assembled by StreetExit, a subsidiary of Ninth District Opportunity, the North Georgia nonprofit agency that supports low-income families, administering services like the early childhood education program Head Start and the low-income energy assistance program (LIHEAP), both targeted for steep cuts by the White House — the Trump administration has already eliminated the entire LIHEAP staff.
“These are critical programs for a large segment of the population,” Fisher noted. “Regarding energy assistance, for example — for some seniors, it comes down to making the choice between keeping the house warm in winter or getting their medication that month.”
Most of the people seeking help last Thursday have jobs, which also is the case for the unhoused population that Chrystal Coker tries to assist.
“About 95 percent of the homeless individuals I work with are working, or at least one member of the household works,” said Coker, part of Ninth District’s housing team. “For many families, daycare is unaffordable, so if there are two parents or caregivers, they both can’t work.”
While most of the volunteers last Thursday were hustling from car to car, delivering prepared bags of necessities, Coker met with people at her booth, trying to find them shelter for the night, or longer.
“The challenge is, a lot of landlords don’t want to rent to people coming out of a homeless situation,” she said. “So, we mediate and try to help people find a place to live. It’s amazing how many people are just one lost paycheck away from being in that same predicament.”
For Jeff Edrington, the desire to address the problem of homelessness is deep rooted. His father was a Presbyterian minister and Edrington remembers working in a soup kitchen for a week in Washington, D.C., an experience that shaped his worldview. But it wasn’t until he was building his startup in Athens — he owns title search companies, in the service of real estate lawyers — that he hit upon his big idea.
Every time he went to the office, he saw them, the people living on the street. It cut through him, made him cry, made him think, “I’ve got to do something.” Now living in Cleveland and operating his business from home, Edrington recently launched a non-profit called Will U Help.
“We realized that the fastest way to get someone off the street is to reconnect them with a lost loved one,” he explained. Using his expertise in research databases, his organization helps locate family members, then facilitates communication through short video messages. Sometimes, even when there isn’t a blood relative, there is someone who cares.
“We worked with a person in Chattanooga who wanted to make a connection, but he didn’t have any family, per se,” Edrington recalled. “But he had been in Big Brothers Big Sisters as a child, and we were able to connect him with his Big Brother, from when he was a child, and he got the help he needed.”
Here is where Edrington paused to think for a glance around at the people in those cars wrapped around the thrift store, and to think about the people — complete strangers — that he’s hugged on the streets of Athens.
“I loved that, the hugging,” he said, beginning to cry a little. “You know why? Because these are people that no one wants to hug, because maybe they haven’t showered in two weeks. But these are human beings, many who miss the simple touch of kindness from another human being.”
He added, “you know, sometimes time can heal old wounds, and a simple connection can change everything.”
StreetExit will continue making simple connections with the local community of need at the next Homeless Services event, June 12, 2-5 p.m., at His Hands and Feet Thrift Store. For more information, visit www.streetexit.org.