SARPY COUNTY, Neb. (KMTV) – Sarpy County doesn't have a homeless shelter leaving many to seek shelter in Omaha, but organization leaders say this has an impact on those in the community.
- Sarpy County doesn't have a homeless shelter causing those to seek shelter in Omaha
- This impacts how students get to school and transportation to job
- Tanya Gifford, executive director for Lift Up Sarpy County says shes concerned for what is to come
BROADCAST TRANSCRIPT:
An invisible problem, empty park turns into a home for those looking for a place to sleep.
Compared to the three homeless shelters in Douglas County, Sarpy County has none, forcing neighbors who are seeking shelter to move outside their communities.
What is the real impact of this?
“When retail starts closing down that's when you start seeing that population moving around whether they are trying to get Omaha into a shelter or if they have a car, they are hang out in parking lots,” said Tanay Gifford, executive director of Lift Up Sarpy County.
But families sleeping in cars in the cold weather is just one of the issues the county faces without a shelter according to Gifford.
“You don't want them to have to go to a shelter in downtown Omaha when they got school in Gretna, that a burden on the school district for providing transportation,” she said.
The Title one program through the federal government provides transportation for students to get from the shelter to school.
But there's not much for people who must get to jobs in Sarpy County from a shelter.
“The further away you get out of downtown Omaha the more difficult that is so we are on a couple bus lines here and people are able to use those, but it takes a long time,” said Steve Frazee, chief impact officer for Open Door Mission.
Now as evictions continue to rise in Sarpy County, Gifford is worry about what is come for those families.
“Long term we just got to get an around the table and doing some find of shelter in Sarpy County,” Gifford aid. “Every time we throw money at a hotel for a temporary shelter, we are increasing the homelessness and the problem."
But Gifford said something needs to be done soon and she’s working with other organizations to find short term solutions.
