WARNER ROBINS, Ga. — The Georgia Department of Community Affairs says the number of homeless people in the county has increased 82 percent since 2017.
For the last few months, Gregory Miller has rolled up a small mattress in the back of a convenience store before he begins his day.
"This is a good friend of mine and I stay here at the store. This is a business. I can’t continue to stay here,” he said.
The 72-year-old said after living in Warner Robins briefly in the 1970s, he moved back in 2009 when he fell on hard times.
"Everything was fine, but then you have your ups and downs and ins and outs, and finally I got into the position I’m in now and I just don’t know which way to turn," Miller recalled.
He says he's kept a log of where he reached out to more than a dozen agencies in search for help to find permanent housing.
"The Community Action Center, Warner Robins Senior Services, US Department of HUD," Miller listed, but he says all he's gotten is further from the help he needs.
"No returned calls, some of them, the voicemails say, 'I’ll return your call,' and nobody, and this has been since the last of June," he said.
Miller believes the agencies he reaches out to has the money, but for whatever reason, isn't shelling it out.
"I heard Biden say that there was $466 billion allotted to all the states in the union and only 25 percent of that money has been distributed," he said.
Despite his situation, he says he still has his strength.
"I decided to give up, but then I guess the spirit in me and by God’s grace, I said, 'I just have to keep struggling. I just have to keep on going,'" he said.
Miller says he wants to bring attention to the lack of answers he and others may be getting.
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