Police begin tracking public encounters with homeless population

By Andrew James

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    HENDERSONVILLE, North Carolina (WLOS) — The Hendersonville Police Department is now tracking encounters with the homeless community. Police Chief Blair Myhand said they started this new practice in March, receiving more complaints and questions about the homeless community earlier this year.

“We really found that we have really no data to understand what homelessness looks like in the city of Hendersonville, and I don’t mean from an optics standpoint, but what impacts is it actually having on services here in the city,” Chief Myhand said.

According to Myhand, since March 17, Hendersonville police have responded to 49 calls involving the homeless community. One call on April 9 involved a man sleeping in front of a store with a pill bottle beside him.

“Being homeless is not a crime, but there are crimes that are often associated with homelessness that are our issue,” he said.

Last month, the Hendersonville Police Department identified 24 homeless camps in city limits, Myhand said 10 were inactive. The city does not have an ordinance that prohibits camping in public places, so no actions were taken by police.

“We’re not in the practice of kicking tents over and pushing people out,” Chief Myhand said. “We would much rather get people connected to resources, get them the help they need.”

“These folks are just so desperate, we’ve seen the cases increase twice as much as last year in the same period,” said Elizabeth Moss, executive director of Interfaith Assistance Ministry.

Moss said this is caused by the COVID-19 pandemic as well as higher costs at the grocery store, gas pump and for housing.

In 2021, Interfaith Assistance Ministry helped 290 people with homeless services. In 2022, the nonprofit has already helped 128 people with homeless services.

“People are in great need, services that we provide are really critical because without our help they wouldn’t have anything to eat,” Moss said.

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