A man known only as “Red Dog”, who has been living in the woods off Silver Creek Trail for the past four
years, pushes an old Kroger shopping cart filled with trash he and others helped clean up in the area.
Continuing Efforts
ROME’S RESPONSE TO HOMELESSNESS TAKES FOCUS
Tucked in the woods between Shorter Avenue and the
railroad tracks, colorful blankets strung between ivy-covered
trees shield the camp from delivery traffic behind a big box
store.
A petite woman in her mid-30s brushes a blanket aside and
explains how tiring it is to keep rebuilding after each heavy
rainfall.
“I guess it’s just part of life, though, you know?,” she said,
adding that she grew up in Douglasville. “It could be worse.
My dad had a house with 10 of us and he was always building.
My husband and I used to live up north and by the grace of
God we survived negative three degree weather. So I guess I
54 OUTLOOK | APRIL 2020
By K.T. McKee
shouldn’t complain.”
She said she thinks that no matter where a person lives, they
are going to have struggles with one thing or another.
“Sometimes I feel outcasted, but other than that, I think it’s
the same, whether you’re in the city or in the county, whether
you have a mansion or just a tent,” she said. “I guess one big
difference, though, is if you lose your stuff out here, you have
to start from scratch. So getting on your feet by yourself, trying
to get a job or anything, you have to have an ID and all that.
That’s the hardest thing.”
She is one of an estimated 250 unsheltered homeless
people living in the woods, streets or in cars in the Rome area.