Rodney Jones was an incongruous sight Thursday, wearing a party hat he had purchased at Dollar Tree as a way of celebrating his 62nd birthday while sitting in front of Spencer’s Coffee on College Street.

His bedroll and a backpack stuffed with his belongings were nearby, making the former janitorial worker even more of a curiosity to those who filed past.

Jones, who came to Bowling Green from Missouri in April, wasn’t easy to ignore. And, increasingly, the group to which he belongs – Bowling Green’s homeless population – is likewise difficult to overlook.

“I’ve lived here since 2011, and I believe there has been a marked increase in homelessness,” said Laura Harper Knight, southern Kentucky organizer for the Kentuckians for the Commonwealth organization that advocates for progressive policies and programs statewide. “I’ve noticed it as a citizen.”

She’s not alone. Although precise local measures of homelessness are hard to pin down, evidence abounds that Bowling Green is at least keeping pace with national statistics that show homelessness on the rise.

The latest U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development homeless assessment report found that 580,466 people across the nation experienced homelessness on a single night in 2020, an increase of 2.2% from 2019.

Those numbers come from HUD’s Point-in-Time estimates that offer a snapshot of homelessness on a single night. The one-night counts are conducted during the last 10 days of January each year.

The 2020 Point-in-Time estimate for Warren County showed 165 homeless people, a seemingly negligible number in a county with an estimated 135,000 residents.

But anecdotal evidence ranging from panhandlers on street corners to homeless people camping out in empty restaurant buildings suggests that Bowling Green’s homeless population could be higher.

Among recent events that have shed light on homelessness in Bowling Green:

• A February renters’ rights rally in front of City Hall organized by the Bowling Green Sunrise Movement that advocates for affordable housing.
• The April cleanup by the Bowling Green Parks and Recreation Department staff of a homeless camp behind Walmart on Morgantown Road.
• A June “Walk for the Homeless” through downtown coordinated by the Rise and Shine group created by local homeless advocate De’Inara Carter.
• The recent lengthy debate over the city of Bowling Green budget in which Commissioners Dana Beasley Brown and Carlos Bailey argued that the budget should include funding for a city position to deal with homelessness and a lack of affordable housing in the city.

The issue of creating a city position hasn’t been resolved, but the city commission will take steps toward a possible resolution with a work session on homelessness to be held at 4:30 p.m. July 22 at the Sloan Convention Center.

The work session, to be coordinated by the Kentucky League of Cities, will be open to the public but not to public comment. Only representatives of local organizations that deal with homelessness and affordable housing will be allowed to present.

Public comment on the homelessness issue is being accepted by the city through Tuesday at this email address: CityClerk@bgky.org.

“I wasn’t personally ready to make that decision (on creating a city position),” said Bowling Green Mayor Todd Alcott. “I want to have a meeting that produces an understanding of the homeless situation in Bowling Green.”

It’s not the first time the city has looked into the issue. A housing study done in 2019 showed that more than 45 percent of renter-occupied households in the city are considered cost-burdened (with more than 30 percent of their income going for housing).

Such statistics, plus the visible evidence of homelessness, led Brown and Bailey to ask why the city budget allocated funds for a new downtown development coordinator but not for a staff person to address homelessness and affordable housing.

“Housing insecurity is rising, not just in our city but in the nation,” said Bailey. “We need to address it now before it becomes a greater issue.”

Exactly how to address the issue is up for debate, and some in the community strongly oppose creating another staff position.

“It is not the role of government to address this problem,” said Tonja Tuttle, co-founder of the Warren County Conservatives group. “As citizens, we should serve this population ourselves and not rely or cast this upon government officials.

“We have a number of organizations and churches that do just this, and they do a fabulous job.”

Whether a city staff position is created or not, the leader of one nonprofit organization that works to address housing insecurity believes this is an opportune time to devote city resources to the issue.

“Funding from the American Rescue Plan is going to provide cities and counties a great opportunity to address these issues,” said Rhondell Miller, executive director of HOTEL INC.

Miller is in favor of using some of that federal money to create an affordable housing trust fund similar to one being employed in Lexington and other cities that use them as leverage to help developers build affordable housing.

KFTC’s Knight cautions against such a fund becoming “a slush fund for developers,” but she is pleased to see the city hold a work session on homelessness.

“It’s exciting to know that they’re finally taking some steps to address the problem,” Knight said. “This is a systemic problem that needs systemic solutions.”

Doug Depp, who has worked for years with the church-affiliated Room in the Inn program that provides temporary housing and with the Ryan’s Making a Difference Outreach that provides meals, also sees the work session as a good step toward resolving a chronic problem.

“The first step is admitting that we have a problem,” Depp said. “I’m going into it with an open mind to see what they’re thinking. At least it opens up a dialogue.”

Mayor Alcott sees the work session as an opportunity “to hear from organizations that are doing the work,” and he hopes the dialogue with those organizations can lead to solutions.

“I don’t believe in walking by a problem,” Alcott said. “I want a community-led effort, and I want us to agree on what we need to do to help people get out of their current situations.”

Bailey, an attorney, said he has seen firsthand how homelessness and housing insecurity is affecting Bowling Green families and believes the time has come for the city to take action.

“If you look around Bowling Green, a lot of people are facing eviction for numerous reasons,” Bailey said. “Some have medical debt, some have drug problems.

“We need to address the issues that cause housing insecurity. It’s just good policy.”