On rural homelessness in Texas

The Texas Tribune reports today, dateline Stephenville, population 21,164, the anchor of a micropolitan area in Erath County, population 41,169.  The headline for Juan Pablo Garnham's story is "In rural Texas, people experiencing homelessness lead 'masked' lives outside of public view."  The themes are predictable and familiar to those who know anything about rural livelihoods.  A big one is lack of services, and another is lack of reliable data.  Here's a short excerpt from the story:

Last year, Gov. Greg Abbott spotlighted homelessness in Texas urban areas after battling with Austin's mayor over tent policies and services for those in need. Meanwhile, rural Texas is experiencing a surge in homelessness, and it lacks many of the resources the big cities have to cope. 

Rural counties don’t typically conduct the homelessness counts that urban areas like Austin, Dallas or Houston organize each January. But the Texas Homeless Network estimates that in 2019 more than 8,000 people experienced homelessness in 215 Texas counties outside the state’s urban regions. That’s almost how many people experience homelessness in Dallas and Houston combined. And, since 2016, homelessness in those less populated counties has increased by 33%.

And then there is this on the rural-urban charity gap:

Forty miles north in Mineral Wells, James Rhodes relies on Fort Worth supermarkets to donate the groceries that stock the food pantry of New Haven Ministries, an organization he directs that provides food, clothes and shelter to people in need. 

“The problem with rural areas is that nobody thinks about us. There’s no resources, and we have to do a lot with what we can get,” Rhodes said. 

He oversees volunteers who help him organize, pack and distribute food. New Haven doesn’t receive any state or federal money. Rhodes doesn’t even know where to go or how to apply for the funds that bigger cities get.

Mineral Wells, population 16,788, straddles Palo Pinto County (population 28,111) and Parker County (population 116,297). 

Interestingly, one part of the story suggests that rural services can be better than urban ones in some instances.  Take the case of Michael Landers of Fort Worth, who lost his job five years ago and subsequently spent two years sleeping with his wife and child in their vehicle and in hotel rooms.  They ultimately moved to Mineral Wells where they could stay together as a family at the shelter--not an option in Fort Worth where men and women get separated into different shelters.  Landers found out about the Mineral Wells option, 50 miles away, online.  Here, Garnham quotes Landers:

We didn’t know anything about Mineral Wells.  We didn’t know anybody there, but it was the only option for us.

* * *

This was a smaller community.  They know your name, what you need. In the larger shelters and in larger cities, you are not going to have that.

Garnham provides additional context: 

At [the Mineral Wells] shelter, the Landers family got a bedroom with a bunk bed. Their son would sleep on the top, Landers and his wife on the bottom. The shelter also helped him get his driver's license back, and he found work as a commercial truck driver.  

The Landers family is now living in a suburb of Fort Worth.