Tim Freeman walks through the wooded area he used to call home. It is one of the tent cities where homeless people gather and live.
"Everybody's real close," Freeman said, but adding there were some scary moments. "There have been stabbings out here, but it's over stupid stuff."
Freeman is only one of the homeless in Catawba County, and Wednesday, Housing Visions Continuum of Care of Catawba County conducted a point in time count of homeless, giving them backpacks filled with necessities such as blankets, tarps, bottled water and sweat pants and shirts, for example.
Participants also were given Chic-fil-A sandwiches and drinks. In exchange, they helped the continuum by taking a survey aimed at identifying where service needs are within the homeless community.
Freeman, 26, became homeless when both of his grandparents died within two months of each other in 2006.
"Me and my mom were left with nothing," he said.
His mother, who is disabled, lives with his uncle, but Freeman hit the streets, where he has lived since.
Roose Ikard, 42, is now off the streets, living with her mother.
"With these cold nights we've been having, me and mama get down on our knees and pray for those who don't have shelter," Ikard said.
Ikard said housing should be the No. 1 priority.
Pastor Jack McConnell, director of the Grace House Men's Day Center in Hickory, said more than 75 backpacks were given out at Greater Hickory Cooperative Christian Ministry during the first hour of the count. The group had assembled 250 backpacks to give out during the event.
McConnell said early indicators were showing mental health and substance abuse as major concerns with the homeless population.
One group headed into a local tent city to survey residents and give backpacks. Teena Willis, housing coordinator for Mental Health Partners, said that group had given away about 25 backpacks by around 2 p.m.
The count began at 1 p.m.
Volunteer Beverly Sipes said she wasn't surprised at what she heard from the people she had surveyed so far.
"It's the same old, same old," Sipes said. "People don't have jobs, they have addiction issues and so many times, just hooking them up with the treatment they need is a problem."
She mentioned some women she interviewed who had lost their jobs and were facing eviction from public housing.
"I mean, when you get evicted from public housing, where do you go?" she said. "They're just people, people that are hurting and it just breaks your heart."
A final tally of the results of the count and survey will run in the Hickory Daily Record early next week.
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