Time to count on compassion to counteract homelessness ills

It’s certainly no big secret that over the past four decades the Mahoning Valley has weathered considerable shrinkage. Today, for example, 70,000 fewer people call Mahoning County home than did in 1970, representing a 23 percent tumble.

Despite that general downhill slide, one subgroup of our population keeps on growing. Hard data and anecdotal evidence both point to substantive spikes in the size of Mahoning County’s population of homeless men, women and children.

According to the Coalition on Homelessness and Housing in Ohio, between 2010 and 2014, the documented census of homeless people here increased 29 percent.

Though the numerical size remains a small fraction of the county’s 235,000 total population — 186 homeless in 2010 compared with 256 in 2014 — the continuing documented increase shows that the sizable safety net in place to protect individuals from the ravages of homelessness could stand additional reinforcement. In addition, a stronger focus ought be placed on that larger group among us who hover on the edge of losing nearly everything, including a permanent place to hang their hat.

HOMELESS COUNT TONIGHT

Those thoughts come to mind now as representatives of the Point-in-Time Count prepare to conduct their annual census of homeless people in Mahoning County from sundown tonight to sunrise Tuesday, as mandated by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

The count documents the number of unsheltered homeless people and the those in emergency shelters, transitional housing and safe havens on this one night in January.

“The one-day count gives us definitive information on areas in which to concentrate our efforts to end homelessness,” said Angie Paramore, coordinator of the Mahoning County Continuum of Care, which conducts tonight’s survey.

It cannot, unfortunately, reflect a 100 percent true portrait of the scope of homelessness as many of those who face life on the streets hide themselves from public view and, in some instances, from their own unfounded feelings of shame.

Others, such as those who have set up camp under a downtown Youngstown bridge, have become increasingly visible. As a result, they have raised awareness of homelessness in our backyard and have found additional avenues for help.

The county’s homeless and near-homeless indeed are fortunate to have the compassionate services of the COC. It comprises representatives of 30 public, private and nonprofit agencies concerned with the development and coordination of homeless-assistance programs.

Their task is not an easy one, considering the complexity and diverse makeup of the target population they serve. The homeless range from drug and alcohol addicts to the mentally ill to victims of domestic abuse to veterans down on their luck to families fractured by foreclosure.

Those seeking a formal and structured means to aid the homeless in our community should contact the COC or any of its member agencies. It is in the midst of an ambitious 10-year plan to end homelessness in Mahoning County by the year 2018.

Short of such help, those of us fortunate to have comfortable, warm, protective housing can adopt more productive and proactive attitudes toward those who do not. We can donate blankets, heaters, food and other necessities to them directly. We can work to block laws that unfairly criminalize some aspects of their daily existence.

Too, we can understand that a house is not merely a home. It is also a launching pad for human potential, too much of which has been squelched by soaring homeless numbers in our Valley, in our state and in our nation.