Homeless people are being dropped off in Rock Hill. It’s overwhelming local nonprofits
Homeless people from other communities are being dropped off and left out in the cold at night to fend for themselves across Rock Hill, and city officials said they are tired of it.
Some of the people also have substance abuse issues. Many come from neighboring or even distant states. None have a home in Rock Hill.
There have been about 40 instances in the past two years involving more than 60 at-risk people being abandoned in front of the Pathways Community Center and other places, according to city police and nonprofit agency leaders.
People left in Rock Hill told authorities they’ve come from Charlotte, Lancaster County or even as far away as New York.
“Busloads of people at all hours of day and night,” Pathways executive director Alex Greenawalt told Rock Hill City Council last week. “Whether services are available or not, whether beds are available or not.”
Police, Pathways and other nonprofits that serve the homeless tried asking individuals and organizations to stop abandoning at-risk people in the night.
“I think that time has come and gone,” said Mayor John Gettys. Now, the city has begun the process of adding new rules and penalties for the transport of at-risk people.
“The issue has been persistent,” Rock Hill Police Department Capt. Rod Stinson said last week. “Up until this weekend, we continue to have some organizations just dropping individuals off on street corners and parking lots.”
Busloads of homeless people arrive in York County
Rock Hill public service organizations came together with the opening of Pathways in 2019 to create a one-stop solution for people facing homelessness, financial crisis, substance abuse and other issues.
By doing so, they may also have created a one-stop destination for groups that want to pass off at-risk people.
The nonprofit Pathways is on Cherry Road between a York County Sheriff’s Office substation and a cemetery. There are homes and retail shops near the Pathways building, which started as a school but became a strip mall.
Nonprofit partners that work out of Pathways help with clothes, bills, education — which can help people reach self-sufficiency. Pathways also connects people with homeless shelters in the area. Pathways is open until 4 p.m. weekdays. The Bethel Day Shelter at Pathways has weekend hours to 5:30 p.m.
Greenawalt told City Council there’s been an influx of people dropped off in the past two years without any prior contact to a service agency.
Some came when Pathways beds weren’t available and became incapacitated from being left outside all night, having to sleep on the streets, Greenawalt said. There have been police and EMS calls.
In many cases, people who were dropped off couldn’t have consented to it, said Catawba Area Coalition for the Homeless operations coordinator Melissa Carlyle. “Many of (the people) have no idea where they’re being taken,” she said. “They just wake up and they’re in a strange place. This is obviously doing much more harm than it is good.”
Where are at-risk people coming from?
Sometimes police or Pathways knows which agency brought them, sometimes they don’t.
Contacted last week by The Herald, Greenawalt and Stinson declined to name agencies responsible for leaving people in Rock Hill. Greenawalt did say most cases involve agencies that are out-of-county and out-of-state.
Stinson, a Pathways board member in addition to his police duties, said people left at Pathways and other spots across the city come from across the region. He asks people how they got to Rock Hill. They come from Charlotte, Lancaster County, Columbia and Atlanta. Some come from even farther away.
“They say they’re from New York or New Jersey, they ended up on a bus to Charlotte and the next thing they know they’re in Rock Hill,” Stinson said.
There have been cases from within South Carolina and, to a lesser extent, within York County, Greenawalt said.
Stinson told City Council at least one agency is a publicly-funded one, but didn’t say which one it was. Stinson said he met with one organization last week but doesn’t see progress in getting that group to stop bringing people. On Monday Stinson said there have been other groups that have been receptive to change, but again declined to name them.
“(Nonprofits) just want people to do it the right way,” Stinson said.
Rock Hill willing to help the homeless
Police and social service groups worked together to propose the new rules. Leaders emphasize they still want to help at-risk people. “This is just holding service providers accountable,” Carlyle said.
People left in Rock Hill often are in need of mental health or alcohol abuse treatment, Stinson said. A new city rule would allow police to do more than ask groups to stop bringing people in the night.
No one is allowed to bring someone to Rock Hill with the “intent of abandonment or neglect” when it’s known or should be known the dropped-off person would likely suffer from hunger, injury, endangerment or other factors, according to the proposed rules.
If approved, the rules would impose a fine of up to $500 or 30 days in jail for someone who brings a homeless person to Rock Hill and leaves that person unattended. It applies when someone abandons a person at a public service agency after hours, or elsewhere, without contacting and first getting approval from that agency.
If organizations are sending people to Rock Hill, they also should send money to aid in funding the services, said Councilman Derrick Lindsay. People shouldn’t take advantage of what Pathways created, he said.
“Build it and they’ll come,” Lindsay said. “But no. It’s build it and let’s go dump it off on Rock Hill. That’s what’s happening.”
For service providers, the main issue is the impact on the at-risk population.
What council members say amounts to dumping people in Rock Hill makes it harder for the people left here to overcome illness, injury, hunger, homelessness or neglect, Greenawalt said. “We’re willing to help those when services are available,” she said, “and when communication has been made.”
Some council members brought up the idea of asking state agencies to help by applying financial pressure to groups involved with dumping people off that also receive state funding.
“Any agency that is supposed to be doing good and is not treating these folks as individuals who need help, and seeking to do the best for them, that’s despicable,” said Councilman Jim Reno.
This story was originally published February 20, 2024 at 11:20 AM.
