SOS Zanesville Seeks to End Homeless Crisis
ZANESVILLE, Ohio – There are over 200 Zanesville residents who are currently homeless. A new grassroots organization is striving to bring awareness to the homelessness crisis in the city while partnering with homeless individuals. SOS Zanesville is attempting to bring the issue of homelessness to light and help secure affordable housing for area residents. Marcia Hartman, an SOS Zanesville Member, says one key challenge of the crisis is a low rate of compensation across the area.
“There is not
enough affordable housing. There was a housing survey done in
Zanesville that showed that half or more of Zanesville people do not
earn enough to afford housing here. So, it’s just a real crunch of
incomes not being enough to pay for the housing that’s
available—and there isn’t much housing available in Zanesville.”
While society tends
to place a negative and misguided stigma on the homeless population,
homeless individuals are normal human beings and it is possible for
anyone to become homeless; no matter their current situation. Christy
Carter, an SOS Zanesville Member, has been homeless since June of
this year.
“I’m homeless,
myself. So, if you get to know people not everybody is—you know, on
drugs or you know, out stealing and breaking in places. Some of us
just got in this situation, unfortunately. Something happened and you
know, we’re doing the best that we can to deal with it.”
SOS of Zanesville
held an awareness event this evening at St. Thomas Church. Those in
attendance wrote down thoughts and ideas on how to mitigate the
homelessness crisis with the intent of presenting them at City Hall
in the near future. For more information or to join SOS Zanesville,
visit their Facebook page or attend their upcoming December 19th
Cookie Baking event.
