Shelter building cottage village for single-parent families

GREENWOOD, S.C. (AP) - When was the last time you saw a single mom and her kids standing on a street corner holding a homeless sign?

“Mothers are afraid that if they are out on the streets with their kids, Social Services is going to take their children away from them,” said Anthony Price, executive director of the Greenwood Pathway House, the only homeless shelter in the Lakelands region. “They are not going to stand out with their children holding a sign where you can see them. These mothers are actually trying to hide.”

Price said the majority of single mothers at the Pathway House already have lost their children to Social Services. Price and supporters of Pathway House hope to change that with a $2.1 million project to create a village of cottages for single-parent families, particularly mothers with teenage sons.

“I couldn’t put a mother with a teenage son in a women’s shelter, but I can put a mother with a teenage son in a cottage,” Price said. “We will be able to put fathers with children here on campus.”

Cottages in Pathway Village will be able to house a mother and up to five children. Pathway House is currently in Phase 1 of the development of Pathway Village. The shelter is looking for cottage sponsorships from businesses and individuals - it currently has funding for six of the 12 cottages in the first phase - and is seeking donations from the public for the development of a centralized, commercial dining hall between the village and the men’s and women’s shelter, along with furnishings for the cottages.

You can donate to Pathway House at gwdpathway.org/give. Be sure to mark your donation for Pathway Village.

Pathway House is 60% of the way toward its capital campaign goal. The facility will be adding 241% to its bed space.

“That’s a major jump,” Price said. “As we studied different locations, we came across these cottages and realize they give us the flexibility we’ve never had.”

The 16-acre campus allows the Pathway House to keep the village on its property.

The women’s shelter opened in April 2017 but was at maximum capacity by October of that year.

“We’re turning away so many mothers with children,” Price said. “There are more children than there are beds. Nobody, right now, can provide a mother with a teenage son a place to stay because you can’t put a teenage boy in a women’s shelter. That was the real driving force that got us started.”

There is only one bed for every 100 homeless children in Greenwood County, Price said.

“Homelessness puts these children in a really bad circumstance,” he said. “Their exposure to adverse childhood experiences or childhood trauma goes through the roof.”

COVID-19 made matters worse.

“That problem has grown significantly because of the pandemic,” Price said. “We had a problem. Now that problem has gotten a lot bigger.”

Pathway House is unable to help an average of 16 children per month because of the lack of bed space.

“We’re reaching out to the community and saying that we need help,” Price said. “There is literally a crisis in Greenwood County, and we’ve got to do something. The problem is that there is nowhere else for them to go.

“Lately, we’ve been getting calls from the school districts from fathers with children. We thought mothers with teenage boys was difficult. Fathers with children is nearly impossible.”

The shelter does not have the ability to help women with boys over 10 years old or with more than three children - or fathers with children.

The United States Interagency Council on Homelessness reported in late 2020 that childhood homelessness has increased 124%, and the number of children living in cars or tents has increased 104%.

South Carolina State of Homelessness reported that 78% of homeless children in the state are below grade level in reading and math and have a 21% higher school absentee rate.

Price said those homeless mothers you don’t see holding signs on street corners are mostly “couch surfing” - and, most of the time, not with family - sleeping in their cars or staying in motels.

“They’re staying wherever they can find a place,” Price said. “That means some guy’s house or a crack house. It’s not staying a grandma’s. It’s staying in some really bad circumstances, and that exposes mom to all kinds of trauma, but it exposes those children to abuse and trafficking and a huge amount of adverse childhood experiences. We know those adverse childhood experiences are the root cause of homelessness and the root cause of addiction.”

The problem feeds itself, too.

“We’re graduating our own homeless people,” Price said. “These homeless children are becoming homeless adults. There are twice as many homeless children as there are homeless adults in Greenwood.”

From 2017-19, Pathway House served 1,044 clients, with 327 obtaining housing and 311 obtaining employment. More than 170 entered alcohol and drug programs.

The men’s shelter is a 35-bed facility. The shelter for women and mothers with children has 12 beds for women and four beds for children.

Greenwood County has the third-highest rate of homelessness per population in South Carolina. Homelessness in Greenwood increased 6.1% in 2019.

Greenwood County has more than 800 homeless children - and there are more than 2,700 in the Pathway House’s service area of Greenwood, Abbeville, McCormick, Saluda, Laurens, Newberry and Edgefield counties.