Springfield Daily Citizen
Springfield, MO News
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On a bitter cold day in late November, Sherri Daniels and Ronnie Morris found a welcoming place to be at the NAMI Hope Center in downtown Springfield.
Sitting in a conference room, the couple laughed and were affectionate with each other.
Thanks to music therapy happening in an adjacent room, the sound of Whitney Houston belting out “Greatest Love of All” made for fitting background music.
“I love them so much,” said Stephanie Robinson, who was sitting nearby. “They find joy in everything. They are always laughing.”
But the scene was short lived, and neither Sherri nor Ronnie could hear each other’s laughter or Houston’s powerful vocals.
Soon the couple was back on the street, dragging their suitcases and worried about finding a safe place to spend the evening.
Sherri and Ronnie, who are both deaf, have been together for more than 15 years. They’ve been homeless since 2019.
As Springfield’s homeless population continues to grow, the city has lost several resources this year — including dozens of shelter beds during the winter months. As the weather turned cold in late fall, Sherri and Ronnie agreed to let the Daily Citizen follow them as they navigate life on the streets — hoping to raise awareness about the issues facing a segment of the population that often feels invisible.
Robinson, NAMI’s executive director and a longtime advocate for the unsheltered, spent hours that day in late November helping Sherri and Ronnie fill out forms and make calls, trying to get copies of their identifications and birth certificates — important paperwork that had been stolen from them along with their disability debit cards while they slept a few nights prior.
Being targeted by thieves is a common occurrence, they explained via passing a notebook back and forth with a reporter. Since they can’t hear when someone is approaching or digging around in their things, Sherri and Ronnie try to take turns sleeping so one can keep watch. But that gets hard after a while.
Sherri, 58, and Ronnie, 64, both said they are tired and have many aches and pains.
If they had their disability debit cards, they might have enough money left from their Social Security to pay for a motel. But instead, the two had been sleeping under a bridge a few blocks from NAMI.
They’d been warned the overnight temperatures would be below freezing and that the emergency cold weather shelters would open that night.
Worried someone would steal what little they had, they chose to stick it out under the bridge again. When they returned to their “spot” for the evening, a police officer had just stopped by to tell them to vacate.
The officer soon left, and Sherri and Ronnie decided they’d take their chances and hunkered down for the night under the bridge. It was probably too late for them to get to the shelter sign-up location in time anyway, and they didn’t know of anywhere else to go.
With cold wind whipping under the bridge, they began to lay out their bedding and extra layers of clothing.
Ronnie motioned for the reporter’s notebook and pen. His cracked, shaky hands wrote one question:
“Do you know any church may help us to pay motel?”
Sherri and Ronnie are among the hundreds of Springfield’s ever-growing unsheltered community. They are, by HUD’s definition, chronically homeless.
The Daily Citizen contacted Robinson a few days later to see if the couple had returned to NAMI and if they’d speak to the reporter again. Robinson agreed to ask the couple if they minded.
“They’ve gone so long feeling invisible,” Robinson said. “It’s nice to have them feel special.”
With the assistance of an American Sign Language interpreter, Sherri and Ronnie spoke at length with the Daily Citizen on Dec. 3.
Ronnie and Sherri seemed to enjoy having an ASL interpreter there for the interview. It gave them an opportunity to more fully share their stories with Robinson, who has grown close to the couple in recent weeks.
“I have dealt with unsheltered for over a decade and I’ve met a lot of people,” Robinson said, making sure Sherri and Ronnie paid attention to what she was saying and the translator was signing.
Nobody, I can honestly say, has touched my heart like these two. I feel like they came at a time in my life when I was struggling and I needed that unconditional love, too. So I get just as much from them as they get from me. You guys are absolutely filling my heart with so much love and I’m so thankful for you.”
stephanie robinson
“I feel like you have just welcomed us,” Ronnie responded, signing “thank you.”
“You are all our favorite family,” Sherri said of Robinson and the staff at NAMI. “You are our friends.”
Over the next two hours, Sherri and Ronnie reflected on their childhoods, their families, past relationships and their hopes for the future.
Sherri spoke at length about her love for her late father. She lost her hearing when she was 2 and was raised mostly by her mother and an aunt. But her dad was kindest to her and would pass notes back and forth to communicate. Her dad wanted her to be prepared for a challenging life.
“My dad taught me to be fierce,” she said, proudly. “He taught me to be tough. He wanted us to not just shirk back from things as they happen. He taught us to fight through what we have to. Now I realize why. That helped my life.”
Her aunt pushed her to look people in the eyes, study their faces, learn to read lips, their facial expressions and body language — even though the then-young and shy Sherri was uncomfortable doing so.
“I loved her. She was a Christian woman,” she said of her aunt. “But at the same time, I really wanted to be with my dad. That was the strongest relationship in my life.”
Sherri and Ronnie talked about feeling misunderstood as a young child who could not hear and struggled to communicate with their hearing parents.
Ronnie was born deaf and his family didn’t realize he was deaf until he was at least a year old.
“I didn’t really understand who I was and how to communicate. I was wild,” he said. “I just didn’t understand. My mom couldn’t handle me.”
Something both Ronnie and Sherri recalled fondly was their time at the Missouri School for the Deaf in Fulton. The two did not meet there, but both attended and lived at the school for periods of time when they were children and again when they were teens.
Ronnie recalled being frightened and crying for his mother when his family first brought him to the deaf school. He was about 7. But after a few months, Ronnie said he began learning how to sign, how to read and do math.
“It was tough. Sometimes I didn’t understand what was going on so I would have to follow people in what they were doing,” he said. “I learned a lot there. It was wonderful.”
Sherri agreed, saying she flourished at the deaf school and struggled whenever her family would try to put her in a mainstream school.
“The teachers would write on the board and their backs were to me. They were facing the board,” she said of her time in mainstream schools. “I didn’t understand what was going on.”
Ronnie and Sherri want to get married. It will be the second marriage for them both. They both have grown children from previous relationships.
They used to have a home together, but became homeless almost five years ago. They get Social Security benefits. But Robinson thinks Ronnie isn’t getting all he’s qualified for with his disability. This is one of those things Robinson wants to help him with, as soon as they get all their necessary paperwork.
“Right now we are on the streets. We are homeless,” Sherri said. “It’s a tough life. It’s frustrating.”
“The two of us together, we have to move from place to place in order to be safe,” Ronnie said. “I have to stand up for her and defend her.”
Sherri grinned and signed, “He is a good man.”
Because her aunt taught her to read people’s lips, faces and body language, Sherri said she’s usually better at assessing the situation and people’s intentions.
“So I do that for him,” she said. “He is older and I’m watching out for him. I’m supporting him because I cherish this relationship. I cherish him.”
Sherri and Ronnie said they feel welcome at the NAMI Hope Center, which is open during the day Monday-Saturday.
Robinson has been learning ASL and always makes sure the closed captioning is turned on the television for them.
“Finally, I feel like we have someone who is working to communicate with us,” Sherri said. “We are so appreciative of the services here. It’s like family.”
But when they leave NAMI, they are not always treated so well.
“People are cold with us,” Sherri said. “Being homeless is different. They label us. We have to just accept things.”
“We try to be good people, but sometimes people ignore us or steal our things and we have to speak up,” Ronnie said. “If they are not respecting us, sometimes we will use bad words and walk away.”
They said they often feel overlooked or ignored at the other drop-in center for unsheltered people.
“The people there, they don’t pay attention. There’s a lot of talking back and forth,” Sherri said. “And they use big words and I don’t know what they mean. They are just really dismissive. I tried to get in and participate there. I’ve asked for an interpreter but they’ve been resistant to that.
“They are just focused on hearing people and their needs. They are not focused on us,” she said. “I really feel demeaned when we are there.”
Communicating and accessing services elsewhere is often difficult for them.
“I think the problem is they are expected to do the same things that everybody else is,” Robinson said. “Other agencies sometimes don’t acknowledge the disability and the extra barriers they are facing. They are often dismissed and discarded, and it’s a perpetual cycle for them.”
Sherri agreed. “It feels like you are banging your head against the wall,” she said. “That makes me sad. The way he and I communicate can be very different.”
Having been unsheltered for the past four or five years, it comes as little surprise the couple has had numerous encounters with law enforcement, mostly stemming from being homeless. Sherri and Ronnie said communicating with officers can be difficult. Sometimes officers will pass notes back and forth with them.
Online court records show that between the two of them, they have at least 12 trespassing charges and five illegal camping charges in the past four years.
In addition to the costs associated with police time and resources, having Sherri and Ronnie in and out of the court system comes with an unusual cost. Each time they appear in court (or fail to appear, as is sometimes the case), the court is supposed to have an ASL translator present. The Office of State Court Administrator usually reimburses the courts for this, but the minimum cost for a translator ranges from $60 to $120 per hour — for a minimum of two hours.
Many of the docket entries do not say if an interpreter was present at the hearing. It’s not clear if Sherri or Ronnie left the hearings with clear understandings of what they were supposed to do.
A recent docket entry for one of Ronnie’s illegal camping charges noted the judge ordered a probation officer be assigned to help connect Ronnie with housing services. According to online court records, Ronnie has not yet reported to the probation officer.
The day after the interview with the ASL translator, the Daily Citizen stopped by the NAMI Center for Hope looking for the couple. Around 4 p.m., the photographer found a distressed Sherri sitting alone on the sidewalk. She was sorting and searching through a backpack and duffel bag.
Where’s Ronnie?
Sherri shook her head and shrugged.
You don’t know where he is?
Sherri nodded. Her head swiveled north. Then south. North. South.
Another unsheltered woman, Chrissy Stafford, and her dog Mischief approached. Stafford is Sherri’s friend. Stafford began to sign with Sherri, which brought a smile to Sherri’s face.
Very few among Springfield’s unsheltered community know ASL. Being able to talk with another person without having to pass notes or text is a rare pleasure for the gregarious Sherri. Stafford said she knows “a little” sign language. “I’ve been teaching myself so I can talk with her,” Stafford said, both shyly and proudly.
After a few minutes, Stafford moved on and Sherri continued sorting and digging through her bags. It was apparent Sherri was worried about her partner.
She seemed on the verge of tears when Ronnie finally appeared at 4:40 p.m. He trudged slowly up Boonville, wearing insulated coveralls and carrying a bright yellow plastic bag over his shoulder. He carried a piece of an old fishing rod in the other hand — a tool he uses to pick up cans so he doesn’t have to bend over.
He’d been picking up cans for hours, he later revealed. That’s how he earns money. He collects cans to sell at McCoy’s Metal on Fort Avenue. On this day, he collected 10 pounds of aluminum and earned $5.50.
At first, Sherri hid her relief to see Ronnie well. She pretended to ignore him as he approached.
But soon her fingers began to fly. Even to someone who can’t read sign, it was obvious she wanted to know where he’d been and that she was worried. He signed back an explanation, to which she gestured at him dismissively.
Sherri then stood to struggle into her coveralls. They continued signing to each other at the same time — perhaps a lovers’ quarrel.
But from the tears in Sherri’s eyes, it seemed likely she told Ronnie how worried she was.
The sun was setting fast by the time Ronnie showed up, and soon the emergency cold weather shelters would open. In order to get a spot, they needed to sign-up at 5:30 p.m. at the Veterans Coming Home Center, about two blocks away.
Springfield’s Crisis Cold Weather Shelter program has anywhere from 150-175 cots available on nights when temperatures are predicted to dip to 32 or colder. But the program is down about 50 beds from last winter and some shelters have already been at capacity and turned people away.
It was imperative the couple make it to the center in time to sign up.
But first, they needed to tuck their belongings away with the hope and a prayer nothing would be stolen overnight. The couple has a secret spot where they’ve been putting their shopping cart and the bags they can’t bring to shelter.
After several minutes of meticulously packing and re-packing their belongings away, the couple headed to sign-up for shelter not a minute too soon. They arrived at the Vets Center at 5:32 p.m. and got on the list to go to the shelter site at the Unity of Springfield church on East Seminole Street.
Another friend of theirs who knows some sign language, Jeff Ramage, spent several minutes talking with Ronnie. Ronnie explained to Jeff why the photographer and reporter had followed them to the Vets Center.
Ronnie then used a pen and the paper sack containing food to write a note, explaining how and where he met Jeff, that they’d become “fast friends” and that Jeff often checks on Ronnie and Sherri to make sure they are OK.
Jeff had kind words to share about his friend, Ronnie.
“He is one of the coolest people here,” Jeff said. “He can feel your energy.”
According to Jeff, Ronnie is able to “keep a beat” by sensing the vibrations.
Jeff said Ronnie is “kind of a target” for thieves and bullies.
“He can read lips a little,” Jeff said, “but he doesn’t need to know what you’re saying to know what you’re about.”
As Jeff was talking, a volunteer announced it was time to board the bus headed to the Unity Church.
Ronnie and Sherri prefer this shelter site because volunteers provide a hot dinner and couples are welcome.
Another bonus: the shelter’s co-coordinator Lacy Hudgens has taken a shine to Ronnie and Sherri and is learning some sign language.
Hudgens downloaded an application on her phone that shows her how to sign whatever it is she is wanting to say.
“I really want to learn so that I can talk to them and be able to communicate with them,” Hudgens said, “and they’re not always just by themselves and alone. Because it must be very lonely.
“When I told (Sherri) that I was learning some sign language, she got super excited. She is even helping me,” Hudgens said, holding her right hand out, palm up, and then pulling it toward her belly. “Like, ‘welcome.’ I didn’t know ‘welcome’ the other day, so she taught me ‘welcome.” And she’s very good to go slow with me and understanding that this is still foreign to me.”
When the couple arrived at Unity, they were greeted by another volunteer who knew sign language.
Volunteer Sara Perry was seated near the door to help guests sign in. Perry is a speech language pathologist and took an ASL class as a requirement for her master’s degree.
In Perry’s view, sign language is a “beautiful way to express words.”
“Like, using your hands and also, it’s a very full body and facial expression language because that’s needed,” Perry said. “You don’t have intonation the way you do with speech. So I find it interesting, beautiful. Even when you are arguing in ASL, you can tell the hand motions are different because it’s more intense. Or if you are asking questions, you have to really show those expressions. I find that really beautiful.”
Robinson, with NAMI, has been trying to help the couple figure out housing possibilities, but safe and affordable rentals in Springfield are scarce. They want to have special accommodations for people with hearing loss like a fire alarm and doorbell that come with flashing lights and shake their bed.
Sherri wants to get a service dog specially trained to alert her if someone is at the door, if the phone is ringing or if someone is approaching.
But the thing Sherri most looks forward to is having her own bathroom.
“I’m so excited about that. I just want to take a bath,” she said. “I want to run to the bathroom, take a bath, sit in the tub.”
Robinson recently used some NAMI Southwest Missouri donation funds to take the couple shopping for cold weather gear. But she also encouraged them to shop for non-essential items. “The part I enjoyed the most was when they got to pick out things they wanted, like cologne or crayons,” Robinson said. “They got to remember they are still human and not just in survival mode. … I loved seeing that.”
“Sometimes I feel like we don’t get to do anything,” Sherri said. “We just sit around and we can’t color. When you are homeless, you don’t have those things. And that is for quality of life, just to be able to do those creative things.”
Ronnie said he looks forward to having a home where he can relax and enjoy life, rather than always being on the move and focusing on survival. “Sometimes, I don’t know what to do with myself. I don’t really have hobbies,” he said. “I want to have a home and be able to do those things again.
“Being homeless, if you look at me, I’m dirty,” Ronnie continued. “This isn’t who I am. I can’t bathe. I’m dirty all the time. When we are on the streets, it’s how it has to be. But this isn’t who I am.”
Jackie Rehwald is a reporter at the Springfield Daily Citizen. She covers public safety, the courts, homelessness, domestic violence and other social issues. Her office line is 417-837-3659. More by Jackie Rehwald
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