Resident concerned about lack of help for homeless in Jessamine County

Patricia Stella moved to Nicholasville about five years ago. Since that time, she has been active with Edgewood Baptist Church with various outreach ministries. But Stella soon discovered that her passion was helping the homeless of Jessamine County.

“I started in a discipleship group in our church where I was interacting with homeless people,” Stella said. “Homelessness comes from many places. It comes from teenagers whose parents may have alcohol or drug problems, and out of fear, the teenagers are afraid to go home and sleep in their own house because of mom and dad; so that’s one type of homelessness.”

While working with the homeless, Stella began a search to see what the community had to offer and quickly realized that the services were limited at best.

Her question to the Nicholasville City Commission during Monday’s workshop was simple: “What can we do in our community to help facilitate to give help to those individuals who want help and need help to get back on their feet?”

Stella gave the commission a 25-minute presentation with ideas and suggestions ranging from developing a community plan of action and providing for transportation needs to organizing churches and job training.

“As far as I can see, and I don’t know a lot about Jessamine County’s political structure, but I could not find a community-action plan anywhere on the subject of homelessness,” Stella said.

Stella asked if there was a shelter for victims of domestic violence, and police chief Barry Waldrop told her that those needing a shelter because of domestic violence are taken to a Salvation Army facility in Lexington.

“They have a center in Lexington that is guarded,” Waldrop said. “They will work with them to try to get them back out and work through their situation.”

Stella also focused on transportation problems faced by homeless people, telling commissioners about a person at her church who had a job in downtown Lexington but had to rely on rides to get there with no public transportation.

Stella acknowledged a proposed pilot program that would bring Lextran bus service to Brannon Crossing and the Sam’s Club parking lot but said those with transportation needs would have difficulty getting from the heart of Nicholasville to those locations.

“I think we need some public transportation into Nicholasville,” Stella said.

Jessamine County Chamber of Commerce director Amy Cloud said her office is working with Bluegrass Community Action to provide shuttle service from downtown locations to Sam’s Club and Brannon Crossing.

Following Stella’s presentation, Nicholasville Mayor Russ Meyer urged her to go before the Jessamine County Fiscal Court and the Wilmore City Council to present her information so all local governmental bodies will have the same information. Meyer said the governments can then discuss the issue at a future tri-governmental meeting.

“That may be a good subject of discussion at one of those, and then we can get the ball rolling on finding out how we can help,” Meyer said.