Multiple times a day, CSX coal and Amtrak trains rattle over straight, shiny tracks in Williamsburg.
The trains shoot past farm fields and wooded areas, over area roads, behind local businesses and under bridges.
They also pass the things — and people — left behind: small piles of discarded clothes, leftover food wrappers, and makeshift camps.
On March 3, the Williamsburg-area community was shaken by the discovery of human skeletal remains believed to be of a homeless person in a patch of woods near the intersection of Route 17 and Fort Eustis Boulevard.
Two days later, another set of unidentified skeletal remains were found in the 700 block of East Rochambeau Drive. It is unclear whether the second human remains belong to a homeless person.
Those on the fringe
The skeletal remains found March 3 are not the only time homeless or formerly homeless people in the Williamsburg area have been found dead.
The body of Thomas Jerry Millirons, 50, was found in the woods behind the Williamsburg Crossing shopping center on April 25, 2015. He had climbed his way out of homelessness, but hit hard times and returned to his previous camp in the woods, where he died.
Lonnie E. Dove, a legally blind Williamsburg resident, also died after climbing his way out of homelessness. His body was found on the William & Mary campus in July 2017. He was 54.
For the past two years, the Williamsburg Christian Church has held ceremonies for National Homeless Persons Memorial Day. Each ceremony memorialized several area people who either had died while homeless or were formerly homeless.
The poverty rate for Williamsburg is at 21.5 percent, James City County is at 6.8 percent, and York County is at 5 percent. Local leaders have said the city’s alarmingly high rate could be skewed by the number of college students in the area.
Williamsburg is not unique in the challenges it faces with homelessness.
Nationally, the National Alliance to End Homelessness estimates about 553,000 people were experiencing homelessness as of January 2017.
A flawed system
Fred Liggin IV, pastor at Williamsburg Christian Church and president and founder of nonprofit 3e Restoration, said the system to count the number of homeless — or “houseless,” as Liggin calls it — is flawed.
In February, WYDaily reported Williamsburg-James City County Public Schools alone had identified at least 400 homeless students so far in the 2018-2019 school year.
The Point-in-Time count, however, only identified 20 people as homeless in Williamsburg, 71 in James City County and five in York County on Jan. 23 and 24, 2018.
“The disparity is profound,” Liggin said. “Those 400 kids [number] didn’t take into account the parents.”
There were 439 people identified as homeless on the Peninsula for the 2018 count.
The National Alliance to End Homelessness also bases its homelessness data on the Point-in-Time count.
The Point-in-Time only accounts for those who are homeless — either sheltered or unsheltered — on one night of the year. The count is required in communities receiving federal funds from the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Grants program.
Funding such as federal rapid rehousing dollars is also allocated to various localities based on the Point in Time count, Liggin said. If a locality’s Point-in-Time count is not accurate, funding is not properly allocated.
“Your resources are tied to a false narrative,” Liggin said. “The resources are so few.”
Further, Liggin said the definition used by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and the Point-in-Time count for “homelessness” is very narrow, and leaves out some people in precarious situations.
“Despite its flaws, the annual point-in-time counts result in the most reliable estimate of people experiencing homelessness in the United States from which progress can be measured,” the National Alliance to End Homelessness said on its website.
What’s available?
Local social and human services departments under county governments are often tasked with assisting people who are homeless.
Director of Williamsburg Human Services Peter Walentisch said the city added a full-time emergency outreach counselor a “number of years ago” in response to a large number of transient and homeless people in the area.
The city works with faith-based organizations and nonprofits to connect those people with the resources they need. The city also connects people with assistance through federal, state and local programs such as Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits.
“In many cases it’s a package deal trying to deal with all aspects of the person’s life that caused the crisis,” Walentisch said.
James City County and York County also work to connect people who are homeless with community nonprofits and faith-based groups.
While local governments have some services in place to assist people who are homeless, that role often defaults to faith-based organizations, such as 3e Restoration and the Community of Faith Mission emergency winter shelter.
Many people living through homelessness also are referred to the Greater Virginia Peninsula Homeless Consortium for help.
The Greater Virginia Peninsula Homeless Consortium is a regional body that covers Newport News, Hampton, Poquoson, Williamsburg, James City County and York County. It helps link people who are homeless with services they need to get back in a stable situation.
The consortium’s mission is “To develop, sustain, and coordinate a comprehensive continuum of care for citizens at risk of, or experiencing, homelessness,” according to its website.
The Greater Virginia Peninsula Homeless Consortium urges those facing homelessness to first call the regional housing crisis hotline.