Food, clothing drive calls attention to homelessness
Social workers call them the “invisible homeless.” They are the people who live with family members or friends because they don’t have a home. “TV portrays homeless people as people who live under a bridge or sleep on a bench, but there are many different definitions of homeless, according to the state,” said Gary Bukowski, a senior family development consultant.
“In rural areas like Fayette County, you don’t have people living under bridges like you do in the city. The homeless aren’t as visible; most don’t know about them.”
In an effort to raise awareness of homelessness, the Fayette County Partnership for Housing and Homelessness will sponsor a food and clothing drive during next week’s National Hunger and Awareness Week from noon to 4 p.m. at the St. Vincent DePaul Store, at 70 N. Mount Vernon Ave. All donations will go to help feed and clothe the homeless.
Bukowski said it’s important that people realize that anyone, at anytime, can become homeless.
Someone could lose his or her job and get evicted because he or she couldn’t pay the rent, a woman might have to leave an abusive relationship and find that she has nowhere to go and a house may burn down and a family may lose everything they have, he said.
“Think about where you’d be, what you’d be doing, where would you be living two months from now if you no longer had any income coming in,” said Adrianne Wilson, case manager from City Mission.
“A few weeks ago I met a woman who was living in a broken down van with two kids. One of them was wheelchair-bound,” she said.
According to Fayette County Community Action Agency, 472 people received rental assistance to prevent eviction last year (July 2003 to June 2004). Five hundred homeless people were helped, 230 were placed in temporary shelters, and 108 received emergency help.
“The numbers are staggering,” Bukowski said. “There are a lot of homeless people in the area and not enough affordable housing.”
The Fayette County Partnership for Housing and Homelessness was formed several years ago with the idea of increasing awareness, preventing homelessness and helping those who are.
“The partnership was formed to help serve the community better,” said Jill Streit, a program specialist and administrative assistant in the Fayette County Office of Human and Community Services. “We’re striving to help those who are in need.”
Streit said volunteers are needed for the food and clothing drive.
The first 100 people to donate money or food on the day of the drive will receive a free hotdog.
Anyone interested in volunteering can contact Streit at 724-430-8108 or at jstreit@hs.fayette.org.