NEBRASKA CITY – The year 2020 came with a blast of winter in Nebraska City where there were below zero wind chills for a three-day stretch and a focus on a new problem for the town of 7,000, -- a growing homeless population.

Police Capt. Lonnie Neeman said there have always been transients. They typically move on in the colder months, but no so this year.

  by Dan Swanson

Neeman: “I think here in Nebraska City we’ve got probably 15 to 20 people that are probably truly homeless. They just float around from house to house, friend to friend …. Wherever they can find a warm place to stay.”

One 28-year-old man was found sleeping outside, in a window sill of a downtown gas station, and was arrested. He was arrested again weeks  later for refusing to leave the local hospital and has a list of criminal charges in Otoe County for defying orders to leave premises.

Neeman: “Of course, here in Nebraska City, we don’t really have any facilities – any shelters – that kind of thing, to take these people to.”

When the wind chill fell to minus 12 degrees this week, police picked the man up on a failure to appear warrant. He spent the worst of the cold spell in county jail.

Neeman: “It’s temporary, but a lot of these people, they don’t need to be in jails. They need … often times they have other problems going on whether it’s drug addictions of whatever else. They don’t … jail is not always the answer.”

Carol Aufenkamp, Southeast Nebraska Community Action associate, agrees.

  by Dan Swanson

Aufenkamp: “I don’t really believe that’s a solution. I think we have to get down to why are these guys homeless. Why are these ladies and gentlemen homeless? What can we do to help them so that doesn’t keep happening.”

Aufenkamp: “These people are homeless because there are things that have happened in their life. It’s just not something they wake up and hope that they are homeless one day. These are things that are bigger than us.”

She said SENCA’s Project First program can help families where homeless children are involved and others can receive rent and utility assistance while they seek stability.

 

  by Dan Swanson

Aufenkamp: “One of the things that SENCA does really, really well is not just give to people, but help them through their life.

So it’s not that we give money out and say here you go, bye bye. No, they have to meet with us for six to 12 months, if not even longer, so we can work with them to build a better life for them.”

 

She said Otoe County has 28 homeless people to start 2020, an increase of 30 percent over the prior year. She said there are circumstances in their lives that lead them to homelessness and moving away may not be an option.

Aufenkamp: “I know that there are shelters in the area – Lincoln, Omaha – we don’t have any here. Most people don’t want to go up to those shelters, there are too many people. They are scared. So what can we do here in Otoe County is the biggest question probably.”

Nemaha County Sheriff Brent Lottman said family resources, followed by clergy and government programs, are keys to ways rural communities handle the homeless.

  by Dan Swanson

 

Lottman: “You don’t see the homeless shelter type of situation because there are not the large numbers there are in the larger cities. If that happens, even in the summer, you’ll see them move in with extended family members, usually for a short time.”

Aufenkamp said as the number of homeless grow, so do the needs for longer-term assistance. The federal Homeless Assistance Program called NHAP is used for families to get into housing. Rent and utilities can be paid for up to three months.

Aufenkamp: “We can help them find jobs. One of the biggest things that is hard is, obviously when you are coming off the street, you don’t really have the attire for a job interview. So we work with others here in town and they help with getting attire, finding a job, interviewing.”

 

Neeman said the winter weather is putting homeless people into crisis.

Neeman: “I do worry about it. I worry that one of these days we’re going to find one or two of these homeless people, especially with the weather, the way that is is with the ground, the snow and ice and temperatures hovering around zero or below at times, yeah, once of these days we’re going to find one or two of them die of exposure.”

 

 

SENCA is planning a town hall meeting and Aufenkamp said it will be a good time to identify problems and talk about how the community can help.