'Close to the crisis stage'

There are homeless people in Clovis.

“People just turn a blind eye to it,” Cherry Gooch said.

Gooch has founded “4 All of Us Transitional Improvement Inc.,” a service to help the homeless.

“There’s not too many places you don’t see the homeless around town,” she said.

Richard Gomez, founder of The Lighthouse Mission, has thoughts on the reasons people become homeless.

“People having a hard time, people not wanting to work,” Gomez said.

“There are some that do need help and some that do it for a living.”

Gomez believes a lot of the homeless situation is because of drugs, some of it is domestic violence and some of it is mental illness.

“Mental illness is the most difficult to help,” Gomez said. “With mental illness it’s hard for them to comprehend what’s going on.”

One thing that makes Clovis different from other cities when it comes to the homeless: There’s no homeless encampment, according to Gomez.

“Some stay in abandoned homes, abandoned buildings,” Gomez said. “Some stay in our shelter.”

The Lighthouse Mission, at 407 L. Casillas Blvd., offers two meals a day, Gomez said.

“We feed breakfast and lunch, Monday through Friday, for anyone who walks up,” Gomez said. “Breakfast at 7:20 a.m. Lunch starts at 11:20 a.m.”

Steve Reshetar is the retiring executive director of the Matt 25 Hope Center of Clovis at 1200 North Thornton St. When Reshetar leaves the post Feb. 28 he’ll be replaced by Lon Graham.

“It’s prevalent but overlooked,” Graham said of Clovis’ homeless situation.

“It’s close to the crisis stage, it’s gotten predominately worse,” Reshetar said.

Reshetar said a root cause of homelessness is drug abuse.

“One of the biggest reasons people can’t pay their bills is because of drug use,” Reshetar said.

Graham said another cause of the problem is conflict.

“One of the problems is the landlord situation,” Graham said. “People live in substandard housing and if they complain the landlord kicks them out.”

Reshetar said Clovis’ homeless population is “scattered all over.”

“They’ll be in backyards, sheds, until they’re discovered,” Reshetar said. “You don’t see them as readily.”

A project by the state of New Mexico is attempting to count the homeless population of Clovis.

Graham said, “It’s the ‘Point in Time’ count. When they came in for food we were supposed to ask them where they spent the night on Jan. 30.”

“The state hasn’t given us the figures on that,” Reshetar said. “We’re waiting on the numbers from the state.”

Reshetar said when it comes to a solution to homelessness he doesn’t believe there is one.

“All we can do is mitigate,” Reshetar said.

Reshetar said he has found homes for people and a month later they were out of the house.

“Maybe you can cut the percentage but you’ll never eliminate homelessness,” Reshetar said.

“There is no magic bullet,” Graham said. “We like magic bullets and there isn’t one for homelessness.”

“It’s a multi-faceted problem that requires a multi-faceted solution,” Graham said.

Gooch calls the program she opened last summer at 714 and 716 Rencher St. “a service.”

“My focus is working to get people back to living a healthy life,” Gooch said.

“If they don’t have a GED we help them get that.”

Gooch outlines an array of different programs that include health and hygiene, anger management, peer support groups and more.

“We have Narcan training, we teach relapse prevention,” Gooch said. “We help people with self-empowerment.”

Gooch would like to tap into some area volunteers to help her.

“We need volunteers, people who believe in what we’re doing.”

Gooch said. “Volunteers with empathy, volunteers to help us.

By the grace of God he’s keeping us going, he’s keeping our lights on.”