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Approximately
150 people spent the night, some sleeping in houses made
from cardboard and using cardboard as their bed and
blankets.
As of the last
official count it was estimated that there were over 670,000
people who experience homelessness on any given day. In the
Anderson, Indiana, Madison County area the best estimate of
as to the number of homeless people is around 650 at any
time according to Shayne Tacket, Operations Manager, at The
Christian Center.
Homelessness has
no boundaries when it comes to age, sex, or nationally.
According to National Alliance to End Homelessness,
measuring youth homelessness has been a major challenge;
unfortunately, significant, seminal data on youth does not
yet exist. While hard data isn’t available, the alliance
estimates that young adults ages 18 to 25 make up 40 percent
of street youth and about 33 percent of the total homeless
youth population.
In today’s
economy homelessness is becoming an even larger crisis for
people of all ages and nationalities. Families that were
once stable are finding themselves today with no place to go
but to the streets. To make matters even worse is the fact
that those trying to help, the shelters and soup kitchens,
are being overwhelmed by the increased numbers of homeless
and the decline in those who can help support their efforts
everywhere.
To learn more about the homeless in
our area and how to help visit The Christian Center at
http://www.thechristiancenter.org/
or learn more about this crisis in the U.S. visit the
National Alliance to End Homelessness,
http://www.endhomelessness.org/.
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Reality Check - Confronting Homelessness
