Shelter Frustrated By Man’S Death Discovery Of Body In Trash Bin Spotlights The Difficulties Of Helping The Homeless

Kathy Reed worries she might know the man found dead last week in a Coeur d’Alene Dumpster.

As social service director for St. Vincent de Paul, Reed says he may have stayed at the men’s shelter for the maximum 30 days or left the shelter because he couldn’t follow its rules.

Many transients visit St. Vincent’s - the only men’s shelter in town - looking for a slice of bread or a warm bed. It’s likely the dead man may have stopped by, Reed said.

“It’s just too sad for me,” said Reed, who says she hasn’t even been able to read about the case in newspapers because it’s too heart-wrenching. “It’s just too sad that would happen.”

The man, who hasn’t been identified by police, was found early Monday in a trash bin at the corner of Third and Locust.

A business owner saw 10-foot flames shooting out of the Dumpster and called firefighters, who later found the man’s body. Nearby business owners said they’d seen transients staying in the Dumpster to keep warm.

The death has social service workers wondering whether they could have prevented it. But limited resources and full shelters hamper their work, they say.

“So many people don’t realize there are homeless people in Coeur d’Alene because they’re invisible,” Reed said. “We don’t have people pushing shopping carts, drinking out of brown paper bags, and the tattered clothes. … There are families in this community. It can be your sister-in-law’s best friend, your neighbor’s daughter. They’re everywhere.”

Nobody keeps track of how many homeless people or transients are in Coeur d’Alene. Some choose to stay in area shelters, but others either can’t or won’t stay there, opting to camp in the woods, under bridges, by train tracks, in Dumpsters.

Coeur d’Alene needs a drop-in shelter, advocates say, where homeless people could stop during the day for a cup of coffee or stay the night and be on their way.

“It’s a very sad story,” said Lillian McSwain, outreach minister for St. Pius X Catholic Church. “This gentleman, like so many gentlemen we help around here, obviously for some reason or other could not stay at St. Vincent de Paul, could not find housing, or did not want to.”

Men who stay at the 10-bed St. Vincent de Paul shelter have a week to find a job. If they’re working, they can stay at the shelter for 30 days. They’re not allowed to drink alcohol or use drugs while living there.

Even with the rules, the shelter is brimming just about every night, Reed said. When there’s no room in the shelter, men often use the blankets and sleeping bags left on the front porch.

“At least it’s not the Dumpster,” Reed said. “We’ll do whatever we can do to help them fit in. That’s about all we can do. There are so many people out there. There’s some people that just don’t fit. They’re falling through the cracks all the time.”

Jon McFee and his wife, Mary, fear they could soon end up on the street. The couple, eating lunch last week at a Coeur d’Alene soup kitchen, say they are unemployed and can’t pay their rent.

They say they’ve looked to Kootenai County and other agencies for help, to no avail.

“Why is it that churches can give so unconditionally, and our own county and our own bureaucrats can’t do that?” Jon McFee asked.

McFee, 54, who said he has been homeless several times before, said he understands why some people choose not to stay in shelters because the experience can be “humiliating.”

“There are some homeless people who don’t want to use the resources in town,” he said.

Kootenai County welfare officials have few resources available to help the homeless and transient population. Under Idaho law, people must prove 30 days of residency with a rent receipt before receiving county assistance, welfare director Marla Lewis said.

“A lot of people who are homeless don’t have this kind of proof,” Lewis said. “That always concerns me when the weather starts turning cold.”

Social service workers say the city needs more shelters for teenage boys and families. Several agencies help women and children, but a homeless family must be split up because there is nowhere to house men and women together.

The recent death is a sad reminder that more should be done to help the city’s homeless, Lewis said.

“That’s not the way you would want your father, brother or child to be living,” she said, “or to pass on.”

This sidebar appeared with the story: CALL FOR HELP Police Department seeks man’s identity Coeur d’Alene police are still working to identify the man found dead last Monday in a trash bin. He was described as white, between 35 and 50 years old, with light blond or brown hair. He was about 6 feet 2 inches tall and weighed about 170 pounds, with a single bottom tooth and a set of upper dentures. Call the Coeur d’Alene Police Department at 769-2320 if you have information.