Officials: Homelessness growing issue in area

Aside from the occasional individual holding up a sign for money on the side of the street, much of the homeless population in Clovis and Portales is hidden from sight. But it is a growing issue, according those working on the frontlines.

Erinn Burch, executive director of the United Way of Eastern New Mexico, said the Lighthouse Mission is the only homeless shelter between Roswell and Clayton.

“We are lucky to have what we have,” Burch said. “This is a challenge of being a rural community.”

Last year, the Lighthouse Mission provided shelter for 8,219 nights and served more than 43,500 meals. Lighthouse Mission founder Richard Gomez said those numbers are rising.

“We always anticipate serving more people every year,” Gomez said. “And we already see the numbers coming up.”

Gomez said the mission serves a variety of people with food and shelter, from vagrants jumping off trains to people suffering drug or alcohol addiction, from people living on the streets to people living in poverty who are lonely.

“We get a lot of people like that come to us, and we treat them very well,” Gomez said. “As if we would treat the Lord when he came in — serving good nutritious meals; we give them extra things when we have it — vegetables, fruits and stuff like that to take.”

Dale Allenberg of New Mexico Workforce Connection said the homeless is a larger group than most might think; it includes people living out of their cars, people living with relatives and individuals who are on the verge of homelessness.

“There are a lot of people that are one paycheck from being homeless,” Gomez said. “And it could happen to a lot of people.”

Gomez said an influx of people coming in after the 15th of the month, when paychecks and government assistance run out, indicates a need for financial education in the community.

“You know, there are a lot of people that misuse their finances,” Gomez said. “But there’s nobody to teach them the right way. We really need something like that in Clovis, somebody to rise up and help them learn how to take care of their finances.”

Allenberg and Amvets President Tommy Knight said the number of homeless veterans in the area is also on the rise.

“It’s a bigger number in Clovis and Portales than people recognize,” Knight said. “These guys, you aren’t going to see them on the street … I would say the majority of them just need a little help.”

“There are some that have been around here for a while, some have transitioned out of Cannon, and others have wound up here because of a friend or relative, or this was where everything went bad,” Allenberg said.

Allenberg and Knight are part of a group developing the Veterans Freedom Inn, a transitional housing complex for homeless veterans that will be built on donated land on Seventh Street in Clovis. The dormitory would house up to 44 veterans and provide services to get them back on their feet.

“We are looking for volunteers that would be willing to serve on the board,” Allenberg said. “The main thing is we need eight to 10 bodies that are willing to get in there and do some work.”

“We would like to get more people involved,” Allenberg said.

Gomez said he was recently asked by a local church, “What could make Clovis better?”

“I started to think about that,” Gomez said. “I think Clovis could be better if people would support the organizations that are out there on the front lines doing the work. If people would support them we wouldn’t have to have that problem or that issue of trying to raise money, and we could just do the work.”

Fast facts

To learn more about the Lighthouse Mission, visit clovislighthousemission.org.

To find out more about the Veterans Freedom Inn project, there is a meeting at 3 p.m. March 24 at Workforce Connection, 111 N. Main St. in Clovis.