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Editorial See other Editorial Articles Title: 'It's hard to be hopeful' The economic downturn has been as harsh as the coldest winter. Shelters are filled and a growing number of people in need are reaching out to food banks and meal programs. Even in good times, there are those who find themselves with no roof over their heads. These are not good times. The number of homeless in the Harrisburg area has grown during the economic downturn. Area shelters have been filled to capacity. They are jammed as temperatures have plunged in recent days. The dangers of life on the streets were vividly illustrated Friday, when Harrisburg police said that a 48-year-old homeless man was wanted in connection with a rape that occurred at a makeshift camp along Paxton Street. The Harrisburg area's homeless population probably hovers around 300 at any given time, said Ken Ross, a spokesman for Bethesda Mission in Harrisburg. Bethesda Mission operates a homeless shelter on Reily Street. The number of overnight stays jumped from just under 30,000 in 2008 to 41,000 last year, Ross said. One of the newer additions to the homeless population is Angelique, a 32-year-old mother of four originally from a small town on the upper reaches of the Susquehanna River. She and her children have been in the Interfaith Shelter for Homeless Families, operated by Catholic Charities, for about two weeks. (She did not want to use her full name because she does not want friends back home to know she is in a homeless shelter.) Angelique said she is recovering from a beating her ex-boyfriend gave her with a baseball bat. Then she was placed in jail for two days for failing to pay fines. She lost her job at a fast-food joint and was evicted. "I stayed with friend after friend, but you can only do that for so long," she said. "Finally, I came here. I'm looking for a job, but there aren't any. I have my high school diploma. ... It's hard to be hopeful." She felt ashamed at having to go to a shelter. "But they've been so wonderful. They treat me like a decent person, with respect," she said. Angelique is part of a growing number of people in the midstate disjointed from their normal lives by a wheezing economy and other forces. Add them to the ranks of the hard-core homeless in the region, and the public and private resources in place to give them basic aid begin to bend. The mission also runs a mobile service to provide blankets, food and other supplies to the homeless living in and around abandoned buildings and under bridges. "This past year, we've seen about a 50 percent increase in the number of people who come out to the van when we show up," Ross said, adding that donations have not kept up with the increase. Bethesda Mission feeds just about anybody who wanders in at meal time. In 2008, the mission served nearly 77,000 meals. Last year, the number crept up over 96,000. Melissa Etshied of the Central Pennsylvania Food Bank said the demand on the organizations it supplies has increased by 15 percent to 35 percent in the last nine months. The agency provides food to more than 550 agencies, homeless shelters and food pantries in 37 Pennsylvania counties. Post Comment Private Reply Ignore Thread Top • Page Up • Full Thread • Page Down • Bottom/Latest Begin Trace Mode for Comment # 2.
#2. To: christine. all (#0)
Meanwhile, the kenyan and his kronies are worried about football play-offs.
#3. To: Lod (#2)
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