It’s easy to look the other way. It happens a lot in the larger cities.
We don’t let our eyes fall on the person standing at the highway exit holding a sign asking for money. We look down when we encounter someone sitting in the doorway of a store with overflowing plastic bags that probably contain all their worldly possessions. We even say we have no change when those who ask for it can hear the “ching, ching” of our coins as we take quick steps on the sidewalk.
After months in which the Canton Repository and its sister newspaper, The Alliance Review, reported on a growing homeless problem in Carnation City, we welcome the action announced by the city’s mayor this week.
Mayor Andy Grove told Alliance City Council he wants to join forces with a support agency to establish a 40- to 50-bed homeless shelter in the city center.
The decision follows several incidents in which people without shelter were forced to pack their belongings and leave the camps they had set up on vacant land. Just last month, Alliance police arrested four people living in tents on Union Avenue near the Norfolk Southern railroad.
‘Alliance does matter’: Mayor builds a new homeless shelter
After their case was heard in Alliance Municipal Court, they were fined and sent back to the streets.
Benjamin Duer, a staff writer who covers eastern Stark County for the two newspapers, interviewed a Salem resident who was among those charged.
“I don’t think it was good,” she said. ‘Because if you are homeless, what should you do? Where are you going? All shelters are full. It takes two years to get somewhere.’
We told our readers how dangerous it is to live on the streets. On April 3, 48-year-old Catherine L. Ruggly was struck while walking on Alliance-Sebring Road, near Oyster Road in Mahoning County, just outside Alliance, around 8:50 p.m. The vehicle left the scene of the accident. No arrests have been made.
Clothed in righteousness: ‘They are always there for you’
Ruggly was a regular attendee of Clothed in Righteousness, a ministry that helps the homeless and those in need with food and supplies. The agency operates in downtown Alliance, near where the shelter will be located.
In his December 2023 report, Duer shared that the Alliance YWCA reported that distribution of hygiene supplies tripled during the year. And Eva Slagle, co-director of Clothed in Righteousness, said she and her volunteers helped three times as many people in 2023 as in 2022.
As of December 15, 2023, the ministry had assisted 8,630 people, 60% of whom were homeless or considered “unsheltered.” In 2022, they served 2,450 people.
While there are still many steps to be taken before the shelter opens to help those in need, and many questions still to be answered, the announcement was an important step.
We heard Grove’s words Monday night at the City Council meeting: “Alliance does care, and we want to take care of them.”
Wraparound services will also be a benefit, such as employment and medical care, which may include mental health care.
The City of Alliance prides itself on taking care of itself when its residents see someone in need. Mayor Grove has answered a much-needed call.
It is time for area residents and officials to join this fight and support our neighbors.
This article originally appeared on The Repository: Alliance Mayor Andy Grove is making the right move with homeless shelters
