But some people who are experiencing homelessness prefer to stay in vacant and abandoned properties instead of at homeless shelters and other places that provide emergency housing.
This includes a 22-year-old homeless man who says he barely escaped the house fire and believes a couple of his friends who are homeless might be among the dead.
“I wanted to try out the wild homeless thing, and there’s such a community out here that’s not in the shelter,” said Jordan Trent, who says he lost most of his belongings in the fire.
Credit: Jim Noelker
Credit: Jim Noelker
A tragic fire
A 7,000-square-foot home on the 500 block of North Broadway St. in West Dayton caught fire in the early morning hours of Wednesday, March 8, said Dayton fire Chief Jeff Lykins.
The vacant home had nine bedrooms and five bathrooms, Lykins said, and in the past — a couple of decades ago — it operated as an illegal boarding house.
The vacant home, which was sold late last year, was not on the city’s nuisance list and had no outstanding code violations.
Neighbors told this newspaper that multiple people without housing and squatters hung out and slept in the vacant property.
Firefighters eventually learned that as many as a dozen people squatted in the property, said Lykins, adding that it would be helpful if community members notified the fire department when they know that squatters or people without housing are staying inside vacant structures.
“We could put that information in our computer system so crews can see that and upon arrival make a more informed” decision about what approach to take to battle the fires, said Lykins, who also said receiving the information about the squatters earlier would not have changed anything in this instance.
Dayton Mayor Jeffrey Mims Jr. last week said the people who were found dead inside the house probably should not have been there.
But the mayor said this was a devastating tragedy, and he didn’t want to try to assign blame, and his thoughts go out the victims’ families and loved ones.
Staying in ‘Abandos’
Trent, who moved to Dayton after losing his job at a carnival in Indiana, said he was asleep at the North Broadway Street home on March 8 when he woke up and and found his room was on fire.
He said he escaped but he thinks a couple of his friends may have died in the fire. He said he doesn’t know for sure who was inside at the time and what might have caused the blaze. He also said the fire consumed his laptop, cellphone, wallet and birth certificate.
Trent said he only moved back to the North Broadway Street home the day before and he had been sleeping in a different abandoned property nearby.
He said he decided to relocate after someone stole some of his belongings.
Trent said he doesn’t like to stay at homeless shelters because he doesn’t like feeling dependent on others and he likes the freedom that comes with staying in “abandos” — his nickname for abandoned properties.
He said homeless shelters have curfews that are much too early, saying grown adults should not have to follow such strict rules. He also said homeless shelters are full of mentally ill people and drug addicts and he prefers to be in control of who he spends time with.
Trent, who says he suffers from mental issues, also said he knows most of the squatters and people who lack housing in the neighborhood where he stays and they all look out for each other.
Trent is now staying in another vacant property in West Dayton. He said he likes the area because it is near organizations like the House of Bread. Trent says staying in vacant properties has risks, but for him, it still beats the other options.
“The shelter is a psych ward for mental patients who aren’t allowed in the psych ward,” he said.
Shelters offer different option
Michael Vanderburgh, executive director of the St. Vincent de Paul Society of Dayton, which runs two shelters, said some homeless people choose to remain on the streets.
He said some people do this out of fear of the unknown, while others struggle with mental health and drug and alcohol abuse issues.
Some people do not want to follow the rules that homeless shelters have in place, which are meant to ensure that they can manage hundreds of people’s needs at the same time, Vanderburgh said. St. Vincent de Paul’s two shelters can fit about 650 people.
Credit: Jim Noelker
Credit: Jim Noelker
Some people who choose to stay in vacant homes do drugs and abuse alcohol, and shelters take steps to try to prevent these activities.
Capacity is not an issue at homeless shelters in the Dayton area, Vanderburgh said, adding that St. Vincent de Paul has not turned anyone away because the facilities were full in nearly 14 years.
“When people ask me about what care is available for homeless people, I tell them that Dayton is a great place to be if you need help and you are willing to ask for it,” he said.
Montgomery County’s 2022 point-in-time count, an annual January effort to track homelessness, showed 531 people in shelters and 39 unsheltered individuals, according to Kathleen Shanahan, Montgomery County’s Housing and Homeless Solutions Program Coordinator.
But the volunteers who help conduct this count cannot check every abandoned and vacant home to try to identify unsheltered individuals. They do search known and possible locations where these people may stay, such as woods, parks, railway cars and vacant properties, she said.
Different approaches to issue
Shanahan said it’s hard to generalize why people may not seek shelter, and it could be for many personal reasons. But she said the local Continuum of Care includes outreach that seeks to build trust with people who lack housing to try to connect them with services, shelter and housing.
“Those services could range anywhere from providing for immediate hygiene needs or providing food at a meal site to connecting them to an emergency shelter or connecting them with emergency rental assistance, job services, mental health or substance use help,” she said.
Shanahan said no one should have to sleep on the street, and all community members deserve the basic right of having safe, affordable housing.
Police get calls all the time about people entering and hanging out inside vacant homes, said Dayton police Lt. Col. Eric Henderson, assistant chief.
Henderson said authorities usually can’t prosecute trespassers unless the property owners want to pursue charges, and locating the owners and getting their cooperation can be tricky.
Montgomery County spends about $13.4 million annually to combat homelessness, and additionally Dayton contributes about $3.4 million, according to information shared by Dayton City Manager Shelly Dickstein.
This includes funding for permanent supportive housing, temporary housing, shelter operations, rapid re-housing and homeless crisis response services, the city said.
Dickstein said the city and county are talking about putting some of their federal COVID relief funds toward ending homelessness.
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