Feb. 1--Nellie Axelong was on a mission Thursday morning -- to find and count the homeless people in Reidsville in the hope of helping them.

Homeless 'hot spots'

Axelong canvassed all the "usual" spots, including the Reidsville Outreach Center, Reidsville Soup Kitchen and back alleys of the inner city. Robert Broome, chairman for the Rockingham County Coalition to End Homelessness, canvassed the Eden area Thursday, looking in the typical areas where homeless people congregate, such as the Mar Gre Motel, under bridges, in people's garages and on street corners.

At the Reidsville Outreach Center, Executive Director Mary Neal spoke of the clients she knows who are either homeless or "on the fringes." Neal knows at least two or three people who receive regular services and believes more may be homeless; they just don't want to admit it.

"Some people who are sort of 'in and out' of houses, we give them food that's already cooked," Neal said. She said she tries to encourage those who receive services from the outreach center, especially those without jobs, to use their skills for their own benefit.

"Everybody has something to contribute; you just have to tap into it," Neal said.

A steady stream of people came in and out of the Reidsville Soup Kitchen for the noonday meal Thursday. Ophelia Brown, on-site manager for the Reidsville Soup Kitchen, said the number of people regularly coming to eat at the soup kitchen has "picked up by 10 percent." In the cold weather, she said, people are lingering longer in the kitchen.

"When they're finished eating, they'll sit here I guess an extra 20 minutes, I guess, trying to stay warm," Brown said. She said several are homeless and about 25 of the regulars stay with a man who lives up the street from the soup kitchen.

A homeless man's story

Anthony Wayne Simmons was hanging out on a street corner when Axelong came by and offered help. Simmons accepted Axelong's offer and told her his story.

"I used to have it going on. I was making $600 to $700 a week. I was a brick mason," said Simmons. Now Simmons is living in and out of abandoned houses. He has a drug addiction and went to jail on drug-related charges several years ago.

Two weeks after Simmons got out of jail, he went back to work. Simmons said when he went to work in the morning, his house was standing, but when he came back that afternoon his house had been leveled by the city of Reidsville.

"They wiped my whole existence out in less than eight hours," said Simmons. Since then, Simmons has had no place to call "home." His cousin recently offered him a spot in her rest home. At 45, Simmons knows he's not ready for life in a rest home, but he has nowhere else to go.

Simmons told Axelong he is at a low point in his life but is ready for a change. He said he even went to church a couple of weeks ago, receptive to what God wants him to do in life.

"I'm tired of living like I'm living," he said. "By the grace of God, it can only get better."

Putting a face on the homeless

It's hard to put a face on the homeless. It's not just alcoholics and drug addicts. It's not just black people or just white people. And it's not just single men like Simmons.

"We're getting more family calls than we usually get," Broome said. Simmons knows of a single mother with several children who is displaced, often spending the night apart from her children.

Some homeless people have serious financial problems. Others have mental health issues, Axelong said. She is coordinator of the Room in the Inn, a homeless shelter in the basement of the former St.-Mary's-by-the-Highway Episcopal Church on N.C. 87 in Eden.

Of the people currently staying at the Room in the Inn, several had lost their jobs, and one had dealt with the deaths of several family members in a short time, Axelong said.

"A lot of times when you're down, people want to step on you instead of doing the Christian thing and lift you up," Axelong said. "One thing I wish people would do is put themselves in their place and not judge."

The homeless people who are the hardest to help are the ones who are struggling with alcohol and drug addictions.

"A lot of people call in, but they never show up at the pick-up site," said Axelong. "There are some people that will not come into the shelter simply because of their addictions."

Everyone who stays at the shelter must submit to a criminal background check and pass a Breathalyzer test. If they have violent criminal offenses or fail the test, they can't stay at the Room in the Inn. The homeless people housed at the shelter sleep on cots and get two hot meals -- dinner and breakfast the next morning.

By the numbers

Rockingham County Help for the Homeless, with the help of other service agencies, does the "point-in-time" count every year. Last year's homeless count in Rockingham County was 226 adults and 42 children.

"Our count's going to be up about 10 percent from last year," Broome estimated. Official numbers from the count will be disclosed next week.

Axelong's rough count of homeless people in Reidsville on Thursday was 48, based on the homeless people she encountered and the ones people told her about. Broome's homeless "street count" was 12, but the total unofficial count for the Eden area was 64 people, including people who are in "transitional" housing. Those figures don't include the numbers from agencies that serve the underprivileged population such as the Salvation Army.

The need for housing and shelters

Tim Locklear is a resident of the REMMSCO House for men, a Reidsville halfway house for recovering drug addicts and alcoholics.

"I know there's people here that if something happened, they wouldn't have anywhere to go," Locklear said. Originally from High Point, Locklear is a former drug addict whose caseworker referred him to the REMMSCO House. He has been a resident for two months and said he "never knew there was help out there" until he came to the REMMSCO.

Among the others staying in "transitional" housing are the nine people at the Room in the Inn. Axelong and Brown lamented the lack of a homeless shelter in Reidsville.

"We need one here in Reidsville," Brown said.

Axelong sees a dire need for more homeless shelters in the county in the winter months. "This winter, we've actually had two people who have died from being out in the cold," she said.

Broome said agencies would ideally raise enough money to build a larger shelter in the central part of the county, such as the Wentworth area.

"What we need is more shelter space because we don't have enough room," said Broome. "We're just trying to get a larger space."

--Staff writer Miranda Baines can be reached at or 349-4331, ext. 35.

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