Treating the homeless where they live

By William Hermann

August 9, 2000 Web posted at: 2:36 PM EDT (1836 GMT)

PHIOENIX, Arizona (The Arizona Republic Online) -- Blood was oozing from Joel Holder's scalp and from Shelly Holder's face one recent morning as nurse Kay Jarrell and case manager John Gallagher walked into their trash-strewn campsite near 35th Avenue and the Salt River bed.

Nurse Kay Jarrell helps Joel Holder after he's hit on the head with a baseball bat

Jarrell and Gallagher were making their daily rounds on behalf of Healthcare for the Homeless, a program of the Maricopa County Department of Public Health.

Shelly sobbed as Jarrell daubed at her face. Joel sat in a chair, smiled and drank from a can of Natural Ice. Two other residents of the campsite also downed beer.

"We've been drinking pretty steady for two days now, and I'm afraid we had a little violence a few hours ago," Joel said, smiling with as many teeth as he could muster.

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Fellow homeless camper Michael Ramon Aragon had become angry at the Holders a few hours earlier, the others said. Aragon punched Shelly in the face, then whacked Joel over the head with a baseball bat.

"Got a hell of a wound up here," Joel said, bloodying a hand on his scalp as he took another swig. "I poured beer on it a while ago. Hope Kay has something better."

Aragon stalked around the campsite, fists clenched, bleary eyes staring furiously. He muttered a few threats, cursed his friends, cursed the social workers, cursed the government.

"I know nothing, can't read, can't write my own name, got nothing," Aragon croaked as he swigged his beer. "Why has this happened to me?"

After dressing Joel's wound, Jarrell and Gallagher moved on to another camp.

"The truth is, the people we see beat on each other all the time," Jarrell said. "Back there, Joel beats on Shelly; Shelly pounds Joel; Daniel tries to survive; and Michael beats on all of them."

Officials say as many as 1,000 people may live in Valley campsites like this. The Healthcare for the Homeless clinic at 12th Avenue and Madison Street treats about 5,000 of the Valley's estimated 12,000 homeless people each year. But many won't come to the clinic.

"There are people living in little campsites in Mesa, Glendale, Scottsdale, Phoenix, all over the Valley," said Annette Stein, director of Healthcare for the Homeless. "Many of them have mental health problems and won't come in to our clinic for help. So, we go to them."

County Public Health Director Jonathan Weisbuch said that, in addition to humanitarian reasons, "there are compelling reasons for us to keep track of the health of the people in the campsites."

"We're worried about encephalitis carried by mosquitoes," Weisbuch said. "The homeless folks are outside getting bit. We could see an encephalitis epidemic."

Gallagher and Jarrell left the Holders' campsite and trudged on down a desert path. The air was heavy with the stench from a nearby plant where livestock are rendered into tallow. Adding to the odor were heaps of trash, scattered garbage and animal and human excrement.

"Most of the people we see don't want to live in a shelter and feel safe in their own little camp," Gallagher said. "Experience has taught me that almost 100 percent of these people suffered abuse as children. Well over half have emotional, mental problems. Most have drug and alcohol problems."

Such people need more than just a few weeks of drying out, he said.

"They get sober and remember that they spent 10 years being sexually abused by Dad," Jarrell said. "All they want is to forget their pain. Drugs and alcohol are their way of doing that."

The two walked up a canal bank as a dog chained to a mesquite bush began barking.

"Brian, it's John and Kay!" Gallagher called out. A man hidden in the bushes shouted to the dog to shut up, and the two county workers entered his camp.

Tarps and tent pieces, an old couch and sheets of plastic had been pulled together into a shelter at the entrance to the trashy camp. On the couch a man lay snoring.

"Brian sometimes has a room to rent to another homeless person," Kay said with a laugh. The man on the couch didn't move.

"We've brought you some water, Brian. How are you doing?" Jarrell asked as the two followed skinny, heavily bearded Brian Mitchell across a makeshift bridge over a ditch full of stinking water.

Jarrell and Gallagher gave Mitchell bottles of water and over-the-counter medicine, as they do for most clients.

"We give them aspirin and treatments for lice and scabies and bug bites. They get bit a lot," Jarrell said. "We give them condoms. Sexually transmitted diseases are a real problem among the homeless. Many of the women make what money they get from prostitution."

Mitchell said he was doing well and thanked the visitors for their concern. The three reminisced about Roy, Mitchell's late campmate.

"I'm awful sorry he's dead," Mitchell said.

"Roy was over 50, had a drinking habit most of his life," Jarrell said. "He came down with pancreatitis due to the drinking, and a doctor told him he'd die if he didn't give up alcohol.

"Roy decided he'd rather die than quit drinking. He died out here."

Jarrell and Gallagher moved on to another camp.

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