Skin cracked and peeling. Frostbite. A sickly complexion. Sleeping in cars or tents in the woods or behind shopping centers.
Desperate.
This is Marietta's new homelessness as seen through the eyes of Becky Place, a social worker at the Salvation Army.
"From October to now, we've had them come in nonstop. People are homeless and don't have anywhere to go," she said. "The cold weather is making it worse. Half of them come in, and they look like they're being frostbitten. They look sick and in really bad shape. All we can provide for them is one night in a motel room and then refer them to other agencies."
Some call them an invisible army of homeless. Quantitatively, the problem of homelessness doesn't look much different now than it has in recent years. But those working directly with these families, laid off workers and desperate men and women, say it's much worse than any figures state.
As part of a statewide survey to identify Ohio's homeless, the Washington-Morgan Community Action Program polled local agencies, churches and other organizations about how widespread the problem is locally.
On Jan. 26, the survey found there were six homeless families, 53 homeless individuals and seven families living with other family members or friends.
Compare that to 2009's survey, also done in January, which found there were six individuals in emergency shelter, 60 individuals in transitional shelter, two families in emergency shelter and two individuals and eight families living with someone else.
In 2008, the survey didn't break the numbers into separate categories, but it found there were 20 people in emergency shelters and 50 in transitional housing.
Each year's count was broken down differently.
Place said the Salvation Army has seen 60 to 90 people seeking some type of temporary housing since October. Some are repeat clients, but most are new, she said.
Dawn Rauch, director of planning and development at Community Action, said the problem is definitely worse than the survey numbers show.
"We're seeing more people at risk for homelessness, maybe not necessarily already homeless, but an imminent threat," she said.
Hugh McConkey sits on the board of Caring Connection, an organization that helps individuals avoid getting utilities shut off, and also works with his church, First Baptist Church of Marietta, 301 Fourth St., on providing similar help to those who need it.
While his church doesn't track the number of people it helps with rent and utility assistance, McConkey said there have definitely been more people seeking that service.
"The people in my church didn't believe me when I told them (homelessness) was a priority," he said. "It's here; it just doesn't hit you in the face. It's not like going to a bigger city where they're sleeping in doorways."
Yet the church did find someone sleeping in its doorway one night. And McConkey has known people helped through the church who slept in tents behind Wal-Mart and Kmart or under bridges. Most, he said, slept in cars.
Washington County Sheriff Larry Mincks said his deputies have seen some people sleeping in vehicles, but it's not a lot and most they encounter tend to be registered sex offenders.
"There's not a huge amount, but we do have some people," he said.
The problem and the solution
The problem, McConkey, Place, Rauch and others agree, is the lack of homeless shelters available in Washington County.
The only homeless shelter in Washington County is at Cornerstone Ministries, 27375 State Route 7, where Pastor Vonda Lee declined to give specific figures on the number of people staying there. She did say that the shelter has been in overflow status recently.
Some of that is because she might already have a woman and her children staying in the shelter and she won't house them in the same room as a man with known mental health, drug and alcohol abuse or a violent record.
The shelter's seeing more people, too.
"We've been in overflow," Lee said. "We've had several people we've had to put on couches, we've had to take mattresses, fold up our cafeteria and put people on mattresses on the floor. We're attempting to obtain more property because of the housing issues."
In Lee's experience, the economic downturn is part of the problem, but not the root.
"It's really rarely economic. It's really attitude. It's poor management. It's domestic violence. It's mental illness. It's substance abuse," she said. "Anytime there's a lack of money and opportunity that does (cripple) an already wounded individual or society."
In some cases, Lee said, people can't afford housing because landlords charge too much in order to qualify for government funds for subsidized housing.
McConkey said he's talked to some homeless who also have found rent too high.
But Place and McConkey said in their experience working with the homeless, most are that way because of being laid off or having their hours drastically cut.
"I'm seeing a lot of families, a lot of husbands and wives with a couple of kids," McConkey said.
Whatever may be causing the problem, McConkey, Lee and Place would like to see more options available to those needing temporary housing.
McConkey said he's considered asking his church to convert its basement to a temporary shelter or to approach other churches about buying a house to convert into one.
"We certainly need something," he said.
"It's very discouraging when you're looking at them and you tell them there's nowhere else to go. All you can do is put them in a hotel for the night and give them a bath," Place said. "There really should be something more in the community for people that are homeless because it seems it's really widespread right now."
