Homeless residents moving out of Myrtle Beach. Where are they going to along Grand Strand?

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Samantha Gallo has been living on the streets since she lost her apartment earlier this spring.

She stays in the Murrells Inlet and Garden City area, currently choosing an underpass along S.C. 17 to set up camp in order to protect herself from the elements.

Gallo is one of several homeless people who have set up camp in the Murrells Inlet area. She said there were more people staying under the bridge until police came and asked them to clean up. The others left without cleaning up, leaving Gallo with a potential $500 littering ticket and the responsibility of cleaning.

Horry County spokesperson Mikayla Moskov said Horry County Police declined an interview request by The Sun News with officers about homelessness.

Murrells Inlet residents posted in a local Facebook group that they believe homelessness has increased in the South Strand, posting photos of Gallo’s things under the bridge and other people’s camps as evidence.

Micheal Warren, the ECHO HUD outreach coordinator, agrees that this year he’s been helping more people in the Garden City and Murrells Inlet area. He works to bring housing resources to people living on the streets in the Myrtle Beach area.

“I’ve been down on the south end, Garden City, Murrells Inlet, Surfside area and see the people I would typically see in Myrtle Beach area move down that way,” Warren said. “Why? I don’t know.”

He’s said there are still many homeless people residing in Myrtle Beach but has seen some people migrate south. He hypothesizes this could be because of the development and clear cutting that’s been happening in Myrtle Beach.

Kate Curran, a homelessness advocate and owner of Fresh Brewed Coffee House in Myrtle Beach, agrees with this idea. The wooded areas where homeless people used to live out of public view have been turned into houses, apartments or stores.

Being visible makes it harder to be homeless.

Gallo said she’s harassed all the time for being under the bridge. While talking with Gallo under the S.C. 17 underpass, people honked their horns at her as they drove past, which she said was normal. People also regularly yell at her.

“(Someone) went to every business (nearby) and put in formal complaints about me, even though I wasn’t at those businesses, so I could get trespassed (violation),” Gallo said.

A lack of emergency housing sends people to the streets

Within the Myrtle Beach area, there are only 22 men’s emergency shelter beds , according to New Directions website. Emergency shelter beds are a place where someone can sleep for a night without a guarantee they can return the following night.

There are more beds for supportive-type housing, with 119 available for men, 22 for women and a family shelter that can house up to 17 families. North Strand Housing Center and ECHO offer housing as well. ECHO has several kinds of shelters, some specifically for women, youth and people suffering from drug adddiction, ECHO CEO Joey Smoke said. While there are hundreds of beds, there are more people living on the streets.

Smoke estimated the Myrtle Beach area would need around 1,000 emergency shelter beds in order to adequately house people at night. Without these shelter beds and that Myrtle Beach makes it illegal to sleep in cars , it leaves people with few housing options at night.

An inordinate amount of shelter beds for the population isn’t a new trend in Horry County, Smoke said. But they appear to be more in the public eye.

“If you have more than two homeless people congregated, it’s like a bat signal in the sky,” Gallo said. “Horry County just knows and they show up.”