Group embarks on ending homelessness
Homelessness hard to define in tri-county, Michigan area
Date Published: December 13, 2006
Publisher:
The Daily Mining Gazette
Author: Dan Schneider
Region: Michigan
# of pages: 2
A coalition of human service agencies in Baraga, Houghton and Keweenaw counties have set a goal to end homelessness in the three counties within 10 years.
Homelessness is an often-overlooked problem in the Copper Country. Here, the homeless population doesn’t fit society’s standard definitions, said Dave Mayo-Kiely, director of the Copper Country Human Services Coordinating Body.
“You don’t drive around the Keweenaw and see people standing on the street homeless,” he said.
The climate of the Copper Country makes the stereotypical homeless lifestyle, living outdoors in improvised shelter, impossible. But there is a population in the Keweenaw that doesn’t have proper housing, people who are living with relatives or friends. They are the people who fit the definition of homelessness generated by the Baraga/ Houghton / Keweenaw Continuum of Care. That’s the group working toward the 10-year elimination of homelessness.
“It’s something that we need to educate the public on,” said Char Kangas, BHK Continuum of Care coordinator. “We just want to make people aware of the plight of a homeless person, so often ... people will say well, this person isn’t homeless, or we don’t have people living on the streets up here.”
