The Daily Southerner, Tarboro, NC

Local News

Related Photos

  • Theresa Mix plays patty-cake with her 9-month-old daughter, Sirterri Parker, on Wednesday afternoon. The two are residents at the Bassett Center, a homeless shelter in Rocky Mount, and will be included in this year's Point-in-Time homeless count. (Staff photo/Miranda Baines)

    DSCN6081.JPG
January 31, 2013

Homelessness has variety of faces

COUNTY SEES significant increase in homeless

The Daily Southerner MIRANDA BAINES

TARBORO — The face of homelessness…It’s a homeless veteran with mental health issues. It’s a two-parent family where the mother has lost her job and the father is underemployed. It’s a single, pregnant woman living on the streets while battling a drug addiction.

Once a year, the homeless are counted in a “Point-in-Time” count. This year, Theresa Mix, 44, and her 9-month-old daughter, Sirterri Parker, will be included in that count in Edgecombe County, which ends at 6 p.m. today. Mix has lived at the Bassett Center in Rocky Mount with her daughter for three months.

“We have seen a significant increase in the number of homeless families,” said Chris Battle, executive director of United Community Ministries (UCM), which operates a homeless shelter for families and a homeless shelter for individuals. “Our waiting list for our shelter for families is over 45 families. Our facility holds 12 families and we’re at capacity pretty much most of the time.”

The goal of the Bassett Center is to help the homeless become self-sufficient, said Linda Brinson, program/ case manager for the center. Mix, for one, is well on her way. She asks Brinson for bus tokens to go out and look for a job, in fields such as retail and telemarketing.

“Anything working with people. I’m a people person,” Mix said. This time last year, a steady job was the last thing on Mix’s mind.

“I’m a recovering addict,” she said. “I’m a living testimony for those who feel like they can’t do it.”

When Mix looks back at her life in January 2012, pregnant with her daughter and living on the streets, doing anything she could to get money for drugs, it’s almost unrecognizable – “360 degrees.”

“Homelessness is not something I wish on anybody,” she said. “I was sleeping in abandoned cars. Sometimes I would sit out on a person’s porch and sleep in a chair.”

When Sirterri was one month old, the Department of Social Services took her away from Mix and that was the turning point in her life.

“When DSS took my baby from me, that was my rock bottom. When they took her, they took everything from me. It was like I couldn’t even breathe,” she said

Mix made a “conscious decision” to change her life, for the sake of her life and the welfare of her daughter. On June 4, 2012, she walked through the doors of the UCM shelter on McDonald Street in Rocky Mount, where she received drug rehabilitation through the shelter’s Recovery of Life program. Six months later, she moved to the Bassett Center and has reclaimed custody of her daughter.

Now, Mix says she is happy with the person she sees when she looks in the mirror, and at the life she has created.

“To see her [Sirterri] wake up and look at me and smile is the most beautiful thing that happened to me. She keeps me going. She keeps me laughing,” Mix said, as she bounced her bright-eyed smiling daughter on her knee. Now, Mix envisions a “nice, two-bedroom” apartment for her and her daughter. As a resident at the Bassett Center, Mix is on the priority list with the Rocky Mount Housing Authority.

Mix got into drugs to “fit in” and feel like she was a part of the crowd. It nearly destroyed her life, but she offers hope to those struggling with addiction.

“What I’m doing now, you can do, too, but you have to have a made-up mind and a sincere heart. You have to decide that enough is enough,” she said.

With the changes Mix is making, she won’t be counted among the homeless next year.

In the 2012 Point-in-Time count, 165 people, or 0.29 percent of the population of Edgecombe County, were counted as homeless, up from 0.26 in 2011, the North Carolina Coalition to End Homelessness reported.

“The count is usually significantly lower than the homeless that are in the community,” Battle said. He estimated that more than 600 children in the Nash-Rocky Mount and Edgecombe County Public School are homeless, and those numbers “won’t even be reflected” in the Point-in-Time count.

To Battle, the increase in the number of homeless families, whose income cannot provide them “safe and affordable housing,” is an alarming statistic.

“A lot of people are underemployed because they’re undereducated,” Battle said. He would like to see an increasing in the number of training programs for vocational trades and believes having a more educated workforce would give an incentive for more businesses to come into the community.

“Jobs are sort of scarce around here in Rocky Mount,” Brinson said. “And it’s hard to look for a job when you don’t have any transportation, so that’s a big obstacle for some of them.”

Other obstacles Brinson cited are lack of childcare and having family in subsidized housing, where the time of stay for a non-family member is limited to two weeks.

Text Only
Local News
  • ACT_award_5-21-13.jpg Edgecombe Community College receives national award

    Edgecombe Community College (ECC) received a national award Tuesday night for its efforts to prepare students to be successful in careers and the workplace.
    Edgecombe was among four honorees that received national awards in Washington, D.C., during a gala that concluded ACT’s inaugural College and Career Readiness Campaign.

    May 24, 2013 1 Photo

  • image.jpg County gospel choir to celebrate 20th anniversary

    The Edgecombe County High School Gospel Choir, under the direction of founder Kristian Herring, is celebrating its 20th anniversary with a live concert Sunday.
    “You will hear some traditional choral music, energetic spirituals, traditional and contemporary gospel,” said Antonio Suggs, choir advisor.

    May 24, 2013 1 Photo

  • Gas-Graphic.jpg Gas prices in Tarboro lower than state average

    With Memorial Day Weekend around the corner, travelers on U.S. 64 exiting  into Tarboro could discover some of the cheapest gas in North Carolina.
    On Wednesday, Murphy Express reported the cheapest gas at $3.35 while Hadi's, Raceway and Hess prices were one cent higher.

    May 23, 2013 1 Photo

  • UnitedWay.jpg Tar River United Way recognizes ‘community champions’

    “Be the change” was the theme of a United Way Tar River Region luncheon Wednesday at The Gateway Convention Center in Rocky Mount. United Way TRR recognized “community champions,” celebrated the success of its 2012 fundraising campaign and encouraged volunteers and partner agencies to “be the change” they want to see in the community.

    May 23, 2013 1 Photo

  • AIB.jpg America in Bloom judges’ visit Tarboro next month

    Tarboro’s America in Bloom (AIB) steering committee is gearing up for the AIB judges’ visit to town next month. AIB is a national non-profit organization that promotes “beautification through education and community involvement.”
    “Please join us as Tarboro prepares for the visit of national AIB judges on June 17 and 18,” said AIB co-chair Connie Sherrill in a competition planning update. “Help us bring out the beauty of our exceptional town.”

    May 22, 2013 1 Photo

  • Brown.jpg Local Principal Completes Leadership Program

    Donnell Brown, principal of Phillips Middle School, recently completed the Distinguished Leadership Program (DLP), a yearlong leadership development program for practicing school principals designed and provided by the North Carolina Principals and Assistant Principal’s Association (NCPAPA) in partnership with the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction and UNC-LearnNC.

    May 22, 2013 1 Photo

  • Woman faces 32 charges

    A Tarboro woman's scam has led authorities to arrest her on 28 charges.
    According to a Tarboro Police Department report, Jennifer Ann Carr, 29, 1609 Barlow Rd. Apt. 9, took out loans in the names of 16 customers of a local business from January through April. Carr was employed through a temp agency with a local business, said Tarboro Police Sgt. Al Braxton. Braxton said the total loan amount netted $4,300.  
    Carr was charged with 16 counts of identity theft and 16 counts of obtaining property by false pretenses. She was place in Edgecombe County Detention Center under a $10,000 secured bond.
     

    May 22, 2013

  • CRIME.jpg Two suspects arrested on 36 charges; third issued citation

    After executing a search warrant Thursday on a residence at 500 W. Johnston St. in Tarboro, police officers arrested two suspects for possessing a small amount of marijuana and issued a third suspect a citation for possessing a glass pipe to smoke the drugs.
    After the marijuana was found, officers notified two of the three suspects that they also had additional warrants on them from the department's "Spring Fling" drug campaign where they had sold marijuana to undercover officers.

    May 20, 2013 1 Photo

  • S.Herring.jpg Introductory Latin class beginning Tuesday

    Want a leg up in a medical terminology course? Anatomy? Physical science? Take a look at Latin, perhaps the best grounding for all education.
    Not convinced? Just ask Stephen Herring, instructor of religion, geography, and developmental studies at Edgecombe Community College (ECC). He will teach an Introductory Latin class beginning Tuesday. The class will meet at Fleming 218 on the Tarboro campus.

    May 20, 2013 1 Photo

  • DWI-Tests.jpg NTSB wants to lower DWI blood alcohol levels

    The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) has released a bold set of targeted interventions to put the United States on course to eliminate alcohol-impaired related crashes. They have given recommendations that call for stronger laws, swifter enforcement and expanded use of technology.

    May 17, 2013 1 Photo