As crowds of homeless people gather downtown – at the library and at the church across the street – we are reminded that homelessness is a community responsibility, and not just in winter. With the overflow shelter closed and campsites flooded, too many people have nowhere to go. Short-term answers, like the city providing portable toilets, seem to take forever. Long-term solutions, like providing supportive housing, are under discussion but need action and funding. The mayor and city council need to get fully engaged. As one activist said recently, “Springfield is not resource-poor, we’re strategy-poor.” –Fletcher Farrar, editor and CEO
This article appears in Jun 20-26, 2019.
