Nellie Parker and Thomas Wilson didn’t plan to spend the past month in a van in the Ingles parking lot.
Parker said she and her boyfriend Wilson were living in a Rome apartment when the owners went up on rent to a point they could not afford.
The pair decided to move to Jasper, thinking there might be cheaper rents, and Wilson had fond memories of growing up here.
Wilson said he was originally from Jasper, growing up “in the old days,” when they hunted squirrels for food. He attended some school at the old Jasper Elementary.
Parker said when they arrived, they couldn’t find any reasonably priced housing, which they defined as costing less than $600 per month. She said public housing wouldn’t accept them because, though well past middle-age, she and Wilson are not married.
Parker said the two stayed in a motel a couple of days, but that quickly depleted their scant savings.
They ended up in the Ingles parking lot, having run out of options. “I never thought we’d be homeless,” she said. “I thought it would just be for a day or two and we’d find something.”
Parker said she had been afraid someone would come “and run them off,” but during the month, they were mostly ignored. At first they were living in a car but bought an old van for more room. She said they could make van payments from their combined Social Security check, since they weren’t spending anything on rent.
The worst problem, according to Parker, was the lack of a bathroom and shower. She said they often used the bathrooms in the parks and used the sinks to wash as well as they could.
Parker said they went to CARES (the Food Pantry) and got food several times. CARES was staffed by very nice people
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who even put them up for a while, she said. But much of the food they were given was canned or had to be cooked, a difficult task while living in a car at a supermarket.
Wilson said a few times they went to the Jasper park and built fires to cook. Parker made an emphatic point that anything they were given but couldn’t cook, they returned to CARES. “If you’ve ever been hungry, you don’t leave food laying on the ground,” she said.
Parker acknowledged she had been homeless once before but only for a few days. That time was during the winter, which was better than this stint in the summer heat, she said. Even while living in the van, they kept its doors closed and windows up most of the time, so no one would realize they were living there.
The couple tried a few other spots around Jasper for overnight accommodations. At the Jasper Park-n-Ride in Lee Newton Park and at the city park, the police checked on them both times but did not run them off.
Wilson said they checked their IDs but didn’t make them leave.
Parker also said they were treated with respect by local law enforcement agents they dealt with.
“We were open and told them we were homeless,” she said. “They said they understood and told us to be careful.”
Parker said she and Wilson would work but couldn’t find anything. She said they both collect social security for disability, which they have direct deposited at Jasper Banking Company. Parker also uses Jasper Drug Store for medications for her asthma and was able to obtain a breathing treatment machine that plugs into their car’s cigarette lighter.
She admitted their prospects of employment weren’t good to begin with, due to poor health and little education. She only completed 4th grade, and Wilson also lacks a high school diploma.
But she said the additional stigma of being homeless made it impossible to find work as they couldn’t wash before applying in person at businesses, and employers frown heavily upon applications when there is no home address.
“With no address and not being able to take a bath, nobody will want us coming to work,” she said.
Among the Good Samaritans, the pair identified Pizza Hut shift manager Tiffany Yeast as the top.
Yeast said she spotted the couple sitting in their car where the Pizza Hut parking lot joins the Ingles lot all day in the summer heat.
“It was like 90 degrees, and I felt really bad for them,” she said. Yeast said she went down and asked if they were hungry, and they admitted they were.
Wilson said they had been without decent food for several days when Yeast approached them.
Yeast took the couple to Pizza Hut and paid for them to eat. She also told the couple to eat there whenever they were hungry and told the other restaurant employees to put it on her bill when they came.
Yeast said she had offered them money, but they only took a little for gas, which made her feel they were truly needy, not trying to swindle her.
Parker said besides the nourishment, the fact that Yeast and the other employees treated them like regular customers did a lot to make them feel better about their predicament.
“Mostly people just ignore the homeless,” Parker said. “They think we all drink. But [Parker and Wilson] don’t drink, or do drugs or smoke.”
Since their month of homelessness, Parker and Wilson have found a place that was affordable in Ellijay. She said, “It’s not [great], but it’s a roof over our heads.”
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