Covid-19 has changed many aspects of our lives, but people are still homeless, still going hungry right here in Globe-Miami, and the Homeless Coalition of Cobre Valley does what it can to provide food and clothing. We also help make referrals, and work closely with our community agencies and churches. Volunteers are always welcome, and cash donations too; please feel welcome to join our small, dedicated group at our next meeting Aug. 18 (a Tuesday), starting at 5:30 p.m. at the Divine Grace Church at 305 West Live Oak Street in Miami. And whether you can join us or not, anyone interested in volunteering or donating is invited to call Barb at 928-701-1339.

Recent years have brought a shift from managing homelessness to ending it. The progress in achieving this however, is messy and mixed since we have a tendency to attempt to help one person or family at a time, at least in our local experience, because enough isn’t being done to solve the root cause—lack of affordable housing, lack of higher paying jobs for those that might be forced to find work in food service jobs with little opportunity for advancement, potentially inadequate social or health services for people living in poverty, loss of traditional “family” units. Unless we can figure out the prevention side of homelessness, new homelessness is just going to continue to happen. Potentially, the sooner one can house a newly homeless person the less chance there is that they might become chronically homeless. Because it seems, in my view anyway, once someone chooses the path of continued homelessness, there’s little incentive to end it -- and that becomes the way of life.

The Homeless Coalition of Cobre Valley initially had high hopes to address these issues, but with too few of us volunteering, we can only focus on feeding and clothing the local chronic homeless -- with occasional efforts to keep an individual or family from becoming homeless. With a seemingly minimal interest by others on volunteering to assist, the Coalition has too few volunteers to do much more than what it is doing because of the members having full time jobs in addition to the hours they spend helping the homeless. It is also easy for a volunteer to become burned out as you just don’t see tangible evidence of progress, you come to see the cause as hopeless and give up even trying to help. But with that being stated, our Coalition just “keeps on keeping on,” and we appreciate local citizens calling with concern about seemingly homeless persons, asking if we can check on them to provide services.

You might not see us out there helping our less fortunate brothers or sisters, but it is happening -- day by day, person-to-person, and case by case. And a big shout-out of thanks to the officers of the Globe Police Department who respond and provide assistance to the homeless traveling through our community. The Gila County Ministerial Association funds the Transient Aid Program (TAP) that the GPD uses to provide assistance to those homeless who are just traveling through our area.

Another way you can help? Give nonperishable, portable, packaged edibles and drinks to the food pantries accessible to the homeless at:

* Living Waters, 125 Haskins Road, Globe * St John’s Episcopal Church, 185 E. Oak St, Globe (food pantry in alley) * First Christian Church, 401 S. Broad, Globe (food pantry in front on left) * Divine Grace, 305 W. Live Oak St, Miami (food pantry in east side parking lot)

An attempt to hold a combined Homeless Connect Day and Resource Fair for both the homeless and low-income families was postponed by current circumstances, but a tentative date has been set for the last Friday in January of 2021 -- barring unforeseen circumstances. Multiple agencies and resources will be on hand to help with jobs and other services to address some of the issues mentioned in this article. Tim Gonzales is spearheading this Resource Fair and can be reached at 928-961-3141. We would like to encourage people to continue to find ways to help make change for the homeless in our community. Gila County also formed a Homeless Task Force last year to address issues related to homelessness, county-wide, from Rim Country through Globe-Miami.

Unfortunately, Covid-19 put the skids on in-person meeting, and progress has been limited. We are a resilient county of concerned citizens, however, and there is hope for the future to achieve our goals.