Hearing that jobs were plentiful, one family from Des Moines came to Austin.

Wednesday, October 13, 1999

Hearing that jobs were plentiful, one family from Des Moines came to Austin.

True, the jobs were here, but housing wasn’t. After being put in a house in the country – where there were no kitchen facilities and close to 20 men also living there – by the employment agency that encouraged them to come, the family eventually turned around and went home to Iowa.

Their’s is not a unique situation.

Homelessness has become a daily issue for many in Austin, rather than the exception to the rule.

People like Anne Troska of SEMCAC, or Debbie Stahl of the Salvation Army see the armies of those without a home march through, day after day.

Between July of 1998 and July of 1999, in Mower County, 53 households – or 51 women, 19 men and 108 children – were just barely prevented from becoming homeless by one agency alone. The numbers of those who were actually homeless is higher.

Some are the homeless that have existed in Austin all along – those that fall through the cracks of governmental agencies – who may have a problem with drugs or alcohol, mental illness, or adapting to society. Some are young people whose parents have kicked them out or who left home, who sleep on a different friend’s couch every week.

Still others, in ever increasing numbers, are those who are attracted to Austin because there are jobs here. They are told by agencies or by friends to come to this southern Minnesota town, but once they get here, there’s no place to live. They come from all over America: Pennsylvania, Missouri, Texas, California.

"This has gotten so out of hand," Troska said, addressing a group of more than 20 concerned social workers, Austin residents and agency representatives invited to an informal thinktank on Tuesday at the Austin Housing and Redevelopment Agency offices.

Troska told the others the story of a gentleman who had visited her office the week before. This man, as the Mower County SEMCAC outreach coordinator told the story, was recruited to come and work at Quality Pork Processors through Elite Employment Services of Des Moines. Elite assured him of a place to live.

According to the gentleman’s story, when he got to Austin, he was placed in a house out in the country where 27 other people were living – in the house, in tents in the yard, in the garage – and there was no access to cooking facilities. When they all got kicked out of there, Troska said he was put into a place he said they called ‘the mission’ – another sort of communal living facility where they couldn’t even shower. The people were supposed to shower at work.

"Things like this are going on day after day after day," Troska said. "The word is out that Minnesota has jobs – and we do – but we have no place for them to live. … It’s bad enough for the parents, but what is this doing to the children?"

No one at the meeting argued the existence of a burgeoning homeless problem in Austin. One after another, they shared stories, problems, information and thoughts about the issue.

No one arrived at any solutions at Tuesday’s meeting, but that wasn’t the purpose. The purpose was to open the dialogue about the crisis even further, and to encourage people and agencies to work together toward an answer. Tuesday was the first step – gathering those who already know there’s a problem – by the next meeting the group is hoping to have accomplished the second step: involving churches and other community organizations that aren’t already directly involved in the homeless circuit.

Another element missing from Tuesday’s meeting that Troska and the others are hoping to see next month were representatives of the major employers, QPP in particular.

Until then, those who want to get involved in finding a solution can call Anne Jelinek at 434-0161. Jelinek, who is a member of a private organization that has been meeting for several months on the issue and a case worker contracted to the county, volunteered to be the point person for the coalition of service agencies until the next meeting, at which time the group plans to schedule a town meeting on homelessness.

"It’s one thing to gather and do what we’ve done, which is to say there’s a problem," Maryanne Law of the Parenting Resource Center said. "But we need to go beyond that now, look at other communities, other places … see what they’re doing and whether or not we can adapt any of their ideas."