European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - November 15, 1987, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Aga if a photo a Torf and t7ion� Mumy mad this Bench in Boston hair Homo Tor five weeks. Federal estimates Pult Rte Nom bar of trinole in the United states Between 2so.ooo Tad 2 million. Seeking help for the homeless by Christopher Sullivan associated press hey ii be waiting under Bridges in Maine when police come to hand out Blanc Els they ii seek the warmth of o Hare International Airport in Chicago. They la Hole up on beaches in flophouse hotel rooms in ears that have become their last possessions. As America s hundreds of thousands of homeless people face Winter cities and states Are scrambling o Oher innovative help so that lower May die this year last Yea at teas 29 men and women froze to death. In Alabama computers bought with homeless relic funds Ara Matching people with shelters in Kansas City families Are taking strangers in and in several slates jail cells Are being designated Lor the overflow. Roger Nell who has come to know those who be loss their Homes and ended up at his souls Anchor Rescue Mission in Casper wyo., says. I Haven 1 me one yet that liked the lifestyle they re  us. Society does t like it either. Several recent polls including one in May by the Roper organization Lound thai americans consider solving homelessness a top priority for government. Sixty eight percent of those responding to the Roper poll called it no 1. Robert Hayes counsel or lha a Akmal coalition Tor the homeless an advocacy group based in new Yore says his speeches usually contain a Litany of How bad everything is. Bui then i Point to whal clearly is a changing Altitude you can t even quantify  americans arc Content to let people suffer  poverty As Long As they Don t see it. But Home Tessneir is pretty visible. Ii does strike people As  society won t put up with it anymore agreed Rrt fish Hays director of an Indiana Lask Force on homely soness for decades society has put up with it now we have women and families Tio Aie  Twenty eight percent of those with nowhere to live Are now families with children according to a . Conference of mayors Survey last december. Of the Rosl. Single men outnumber Angle women about 4-Lo-1, in said. Checks by the associated press in every slate found officials nearly unanimous in saying the problem of Homolos Ness is growing. It s aggravated by Ine depressed Agri Colluro and Oil Economy in North Dakota and by a booming Economy that pushes rents beyond people s teach in Massachusetts and new Hampshire. In Buffalo. . Mayor James Griffin complained about the revolving door realm enl thai puts mentally ill people on the streets. Aids and the isolation in brings Are to blame in More and More cases of homelessness. A Missouri legislative committee listed other reasons for the Rise divorce being released irom jail. Wild no place o go. Being stranded while travelling Domestic violence fire and health  How Many Pecota Nave these crises put on the Street Federal est males Range from 250,000 to 2 million and advocacy groups guess 3 million in addition to the millions of dollars provided by charities and by local and state governments. The Federal government is now committed o spending is billion Over two years to help the homeless president Reagan in july signed an Sulho nation Bill sponsored by the Lale rep Stewart Mckney r Conn Aboul i3s5 million has been appropriated and is beginning to reach cily. Slate and private homeless agencies Hough Hayes and others complain about live Pace of allocations much of the Money is going toward improving or opening shellers and extending the emergency safety Lurther beyond the map cities. Among the causes of  according to Ino National coalition or the homeless Are decreases in housing allocations Doni Isie department of housing and sunday november 15, 1967 Urban development Isom �32 billion in 1981 Lo$7.17 billion in 1986 thud concedes that construction has virtually halted Bill says More poor people Are being helped through real subsidies Lor existing units. The wailing Hal Lor Public housing in St. Louis is t7.00q families. Ii is 5,800 in at Sola. Of Licals said authorization of the Mckinney act spending represented a minor Success in advocacy groups efforts to enact a package of Laws to protect homeless Puoplo says Hayes. Beyond emergency help the groups want permanent housing to replace shelters and measures to Slop unfair foreclosures and evictions. The Pool of Money to care for the homeless is hard to measure because of the varied sources private and Public that fill it and because funds for Job framing. Nutrition and health Caro. Not just shelter May be counted As contributing Money is being used in a variety of creative ways. While also upgrading shall or space Birmingham. Ala., spent the bulk of one �43.000 Allocator on computers that allow needy Puoplo More immediate referral to agencies Hal have bed space Lood and other Supples. In new Orleans Federal Money will build a Day care Center so parcels can look Lor jobs said director of human resources Penny brazils asked about special programs Lor the homeless in new York cily Ann Ormsby spokeswoman Lor the cily human resources adm Starlion said we have employment Pinili Ativo housing initiatives Leen age pregnancy initiatives to have drug and alcohol rehabilitation censers we have relocation  one new program that has been questioned by civil libertarians lakes people who Are deemed mentally ill and a threat to themselves or others Olf the streets and into hospitals where Thoy receive psychiatric evaluations. They Are picked up by City teams including a social worker and a psychiatrist and Are Enlil led to a court hearing in admitted involuntarily to a Hospital. While the new York civil liberties Union is sending representatives to advise the homeless of their rights cily officials say the program is an overdue recognition of the need to care for mentally ill people who have been neglected since mass releases from instill Lions in Tho 1960s and 1970s perhaps a Quarter of new it Rii s homeless Are mentally ill officials say. Philadelphia like new York picks up homeless people involuntarily if the weather gets life threateningly cold. Most cities around the country do not make such pickups bul instead take Tho Alli tide of the Portland Maine police who one officer said look under Lavonne Bridges and other neg Llime haunts of the homeless and Oiler rides to shelters or leave blankets and sleeping bags. Many of the deaths among the homeless arc blamed on alcoholism but other causes in the last year included at least two murders Lour traffic accidents and two fires in Chicago a private non Profil group called travellers and immigrants Aid has started an outreach program at o Hare Airport Loiry to gel help for people drawn there by the warmth and the Chance to make a few dollars returning Luggage carts said Les Brown president of the Illinois coalition for the homeless. The Oregon employment division has assigned two employment Counselor to Portland s old town area where they have helped about 40 homeless people per month gel jobs. A new group in danger of slipping into homelessness is victims of deadly acquired immune deficiency syndrome from Jackson. Miss to Sacramento calif., a Lew cases have been reported of people who become too sick to work All behind in real and end up on the Street. A Wichita kan., aids task Force is opening a shelter Lor homeless people with aids. Ii has a King incubation period and i m sure it s going to to a problem in Ura future said Leslie Russell a social worker with travellers Aid in Ulah. In iwo years it could be one of the most pressing Cau Esol homeless Ness warned Hayes in new York. So As the killing cold approaches those who would protect the homeless have yet another threat that knows no season. Homelessness is nol a Imler problem sad Gloia guard executive dirello of the people s emergency Center who attended a strategy sess4on on the problem convened by Philadelphia mayor w. Wilson Goode mental illness Chat Nncel dependency wife Ballering and unemployment simply do not go away in Tho  the stars and stripes Page 13