City urges homeless to seek shelter, wants residents to report people living outside

Lexington officials are urging the city’s homeless to seek shelter this weekend after a second homeless person was found dead outside a local business Thursday.

Weather forecasters are predicting low temperatures in the single digits on Friday night, Saturday and Sunday. The National Weather Service is predicting wind chills on Saturday night of minus three.

On Friday, homeless providers and city officials were reaching out to those homeless people they knew were living outside. The homeless were encouraged to seek shelter at the Hope Center, which serves men; the Salvation Army, which serves women and children; the Community Inn for single men and women; and Arbor Youth Services for children and unaccompanied youth.

“We have been trying to make sure that we make contact with everyone who is out here,” said Charlie Lanter, Lexington’s director of homeless prevention and intervention. “We are being as assertive as we can be, but we can’t force people to come in.”

Lanter spent part of Friday morning convincing a homeless man living in the Thoroughbred Park area to go to a shelter. It took some urging, but the man eventually agreed, Lanter said.

In addition to Lanter, the Hope Center’s Cold Patrol and the Catholic Action Center’s Compassionate Caravan are also visiting places where homeless people are known to frequent to encourage those people to get inside this weekend.

A homeless count in late January found 22 people living outside in Lexington. That’s down from 39 the previous year, Lanter said. But the night of the count was cold, so the number of people living outside could be higher.

Two homeless men have died since Jan. 1.

Justin Denny Adams, 22, was found unresponsive outside of a Taco Bell restaurant on Thursday and was later taken to the University of Kentucky Chandler Medical Center where he died. A family member confirmed Friday that Adams had been homeless for more than a week. A cause of death is still not known but authorities said cold temperatures were likely a factor in his death.

Robert Eugene Johnson was found unresponsive in early January outside a business on South Broadway. The Fayette County coroner later ruled Johnson died from exposure and alcoholism.

Lanter said Johnson had stayed at the Hope Center previously. The Hope Center had tried to convince him to come inside that night. But someone gave Johnson money, which he used to buy alcohol, Lanter said.

“The thing that really keeps me up at night is that people who are well intentioned give homeless people cash,” Lanter said. “Very often they use that money to purchase alcohol or some other substance, which in this case, contributed to his death.”

Instead of giving cash, Lanter urged Lexington residents to call 211 or 859-913-0038, the number for the Compassionate Caravan, if they see someone who is living outside this weekend.

Moreover, Lanter said people begging on street corners are not always homeless.

“We’ve had an increase in the number of people who are holding these signs saying, ‘Help, I’m homeless’ and they are not in fact homeless,” Lanter said.

If people want to give, it’s better to give to a homeless provider that can distribute those goods to the homeless, Lanter said.

This story was originally published February 12, 2016 at 4:31 PM with the headline "City urges homeless to seek shelter, wants residents to report people living outside."