CINCINNATI — As traffic roars on Columbia Parkway below Mount Adams, Eric finds shelter from the highway.
"I ain’t afraid to show this," he said, gesturing to a blue tent that he’s considered home since October 2. "I feel secure under here. Nobody really knows about this unless I tell them."
Individuals like Eric are at the center of a larger conversation sparked in the aftermath of the Big Mac Bridge fire on November 1.
On Tuesday, Fire Chief Frank McKinley confirmed for the first time that it was not caused by a homeless encampment. But in the nearly six-week absence of confirmed information, internet theories ran rampant to the contrary.
My question to Cincinnati Fire Chief Frank McKinley on the theories that the bridge fire was caused by a homeless encampment: "Is there a reason you couldn't share earlier that you had ruled out a homeless encampment?" @WCPO Here's what he said: pic.twitter.com/zsF7z3nP3k
— Andrew Rowan (@andrewrowan128) December 12, 2024
It’s caught the attention of police, city leaders and people experiencing homelessness themselves.
WCPO wanted to know what homeless people say they need and why some are choosing to avoid a shelter.
For Eric, it's because he would be unable to live with his fiancee if they went to a shelter.
“She’s my priority right now,” he said. “They need to get better shelters for men and women.”
Eric was candid about his struggles: off-and-on again homelessness for over a decade, trouble holding a job (he has done a variety of trade work) and previous battles with addiction.
He is currently hunting for his next job. In the meantime, he’s the beneficiary of local food pantries.
“If you starve in Cincinnati, it’s your own fault,” he said. “Because there’s plenty of places to feed.”
When asked, he said he couldn't make the same argument for area shelters.
“These shelters are sheisty … They will literally rob you when you’re sleeping,” he said.
The real and perceived gaps in care have drawn the attention of city leaders like Councilmember Jeff Cramerding. Through a motion that will go in front of Cincinnati City Council next week, he’s calling for a better understanding of homelessness in Cincinnati.
“It is a complex issue, but one that deserves discussion,” he said.
The motion calls for a report with four points: gaps in the current shelter or housing systems, data regarding the rate of homeless encampments, proposals to further discourage encampments in parks, and the identification of additional resources to curtail homeless encampments.
“It is the hope that the people living in these encampments can be moved to a better situation that is safer for both them and parkgoers,” the motion states.
Cramerding said no other topic he’s worked on has inspired more public engagement on both sides of the issue.
“I think every city is grappling with this problem about what to do with homeless people. With a number of factors, it's growing,” he said. “We're part of a trend, and I think Cincinnati should be the leader in addressing this issue.”
Homelessness in southwest Ohio is growing, in part, because of new laws in Kentucky.
The ‘Safer Kentucky Act’ went into effect in July and made “public camping” illegal.
Veronica, 22, faced a trespassing charge for sleeping in her tent in the Commonwealth. She now lives across the river, under an I-71 overpass, with her husband and three dogs.
“Even though I’m out here doesn’t mean I’m on drugs,” she said. “Just means I’ve been through some stuff and life’s kind of getting hard.”
Veronica was once an assistant general manager at a pizza chain but lost her job after a lengthy hospital stay during pregnancy. At one point, she said she was living in an apartment with a $1,400 monthly rent.
She’s searching for a home but feels trapped in a cycle. She surmised she would need a place that allows her to “worry about getting a job” before making the first payment.
While there are programs designed to help, the capacity is limited.
“The problem is that the housing programs only have enough capacity to serve about a third of the people who are homeless,” said Kevin Finn, president of Strategies to End Homelessness.
The emphasis, according to Finn, should be on prevention. He said it’s cheaper and more effective.
“Helping someone on the street costs $4,700 per person," said Finn. "If you reach them before that, it costs $1,600 ... We don’t even necessarily need more funding to significantly reduce homelessness. What we need is the flexibility to shift funding toward prevention programs."
The theories that the bridge fire was caused by a homeless encampment “speaks to some of those stereotypes that people walk around holding,” Finn said. “The reality is anybody could be homeless. It’s primarily an economic issue.”
Eric’s situation is partly emblematic of larger economic issues. He said he could afford an apartment for roughly $300 to $600 per month.
“They ain’t got that these days,” he said.
