Walk to address homeless problem

Awareness event set for Wednesday

By WILLIAM K. ALCORN

alcorn@vindy.com

YOUNGSTOWN

Nearly 400 of the 1,402 people who were homeless in Youngstown and Mahoning County in 2009 were children, 29 percent of whom were under age 6.

To bring attention to the county’s homeless, the Mahoning County Homeless Continuum of Care and Help Hotline Crisis Center are having a Summer Homeless Awareness Walk on Wednesday beginning at 12:30 p.m. at Rescue Mission of Mahoning Valley, 962 Martin Luther King Blvd.

The one-mile walk will conclude at the Help Hotline Community Center, 1344 Fifth Ave.

Here are statistics about the homeless in Mahoning County in 2009, according to the Youngstown/Mahoning County Homeless Management Information System:

1,402 people throughout Youngstown and Mahoning County were homeless.

387 were children, 29 percent of whom were under age 6.

25 percent were 51 or older.

534 people were members of a family.

58 percent were female.

49 percent were Caucasian, and 49 percent were black.

11 percent were veterans.

20 percent were domestic-violence victims.

17 percent were chronically homeless. A chronically homeless person is an unaccompanied disabled individual who has been continuously homeless for more than one year or experienced three episodes of being homeless within the last four years.

On any given day there are about 200 homeless individuals in the community.

37 permanent supportive housing beds have been created in the last year, and over the last six years, 89 such beds have been created in the community, reducing the number of homeless people by nearly 25 percent.

Refreshments will be provided at the Help Hotline Community Center.

For more information, contact Erin Bishop at 330-941-3801 or Robert Altman at 330-747-5111.