With no one requesting help, community network disbands

In 2010, a group of local community leaders began working together to assist the needy in Orange. Since then, the group has disbanded due to a lack of people to help.

Named the Least, Last, Lost Community Network, the group, comprised of pastors, residents and social service directors, was sponsored by the Orange Downtown Ministerial Association and organized by the Rev. Tom Barnard. The initial focus of the group was to bring volunteer and community-based social service organizations such as Sheltering Arms, the Love Outreach Food Pantry and the Clothes Closet together under one roof. However, that focus changed last year when it became apparent that funding for homeless shelters was drying up.

“We began working on rehousing options,” Barnard said. “With pastor Rick Clore and a few of the core others, we began working with Sheltering Arms and social services to provide a plan for where the homeless could go.”

When Sheltering Arms closed at the end of October, Barnard said a program was initiated to transport the homeless from Orange to a warming shelter in Culpeper where they would be provided with a warm place to stay and three meals each day. And though the shelter served 280 people last year, 80 of which Orange County Department of Social Services Director Bob Lingo said became homeless in the county, no one used the program and, like the homeless shelter, it also closed.

“We haven’t been able to identify anyone [needing help],” Barnard said. “So far, the work we’ve performed has brought an immediate attention to the changing attitude of state agencies toward supporting the homeless.”

With no one to help, the community network disbanded.

“It’s a good place to be, not being able to find anyone who needs help,” Barnard said. “But it’s also a rather unsettling place. It’s difficult to understand that no one needs help.”

Barnard said the pastors of several local churches have been working well with social services to determine any unmet needs. He said Orange County Social Services Director Bob Lingo has done a good job of coordinating government agencies and private organizations.

“We created a communication with him that didn’t exist before,” Barnard said.

Lingo said social services, along with local churches, law enforcement and other interested parties continue to monitor the homeless situation in the county. He said of the 15 people that were using the shelter when it closed, all were successfully placed elsewhere. As for the others, he said he’s heard varying reports as to where they might be, none of which have been confirmed.

“We still hear of ‘campsites’ in the town and/or county and as these reports are received efforts are made to check their accuracy,” Lingo said. “There was a report of Orange homeless going to Charlottesville and using the PACEM program there. That report is, as of yet, unconfirmed. [Police] chief [Jim] Fenwick is aware of two homeless persons, neither of whom is receptive to sheltering.”

Barnard said since the homeless shelter closed, other local agencies have received additional donations, including the Christian Emergency Council and the food pantry. And, should a need arise, he said the Least, Last, Lost Community Network could be reconstituted.

“If there’s a need, the group stands ready,” he said. “We would come together very quickly. The town leaders are very interested in doing what is right and going above and beyond. There’s no need right now, and that’s a good thing.”