Part of Lexington's Task Force on Homelessness asked the public to share its thoughts and experiences on the city's homeless community.
Lexington Mayor Linda Gorton formed the task force in response to a study showing the rising needs of the homeless population in the city. The Community Engagement Subcommittee held a public listening session on Thursday night to ask Lexingtonians their opinions on the needs of the city’s homeless community.
At-large city council member Chuck Ellinger led the virtual discussion. He asked community members in attendance to share their opinions on a series of questions.
Members of the public who shared the most during this meeting said they worked in the hospitality industry off of Exit 110 on Interstate 75. A few of them said that even though the city had cleared out nearby homeless encampments, people were returning to the area around their businesses.
“We need to find permanent solutions, so that way we don't come back to square one talk about same issues over and over again,” said Neel, a participant who said he worked for Motel 6 on Elkhorn Road. “I'm sure there's never going to be a right thing to do for this issue. There's always going to be problems involving homeless people around the city of Lexington.”
Matthew Vaughn, a participant in the meeting, said he was now an area director of a hotel operation in the city and had been homeless himself in the past. He acknowledged people become homeless under a variety of circumstances, but that people don’t want the homeless population to feel comfortable around their businesses that are welcoming people to the city.
“I was working just fine, but once you lose that housing, you don't have a way to break the cycle,” Vaughn said. “I was staying at a local hotel, but by the time my paycheck came, 80% of that paycheck was owed to the hotel for my room fees, and so I couldn't get first month's rent, security deposit, those kind of things to break the cycle, so I had no choice but to live at a hotel and live paycheck-to-paycheck and pay those bills.”
He shared that he was able to use a city program that would help cover housing costs after proof of employment. Other members of the task force recognized the program but said it wasn’t there anymore because federal funding support had gone away.
Participants from the hospitality industry shared that their customers were asking if the area around their hotels was safe. They also said they were hearing from local police officers that members of the population were being told Lexington was a good place for them to go.
Ellinger said they would be taking things from this conversation back to the full task force for a meeting in June.
