Rising Homeless in Columbia

Carrie Garza's article in the Missourian about the homeless population and the problems they face with homeless shelters in Columbia, Missouri was both interesting and troubling. It was interesting because of the way it described the homeless shelters and how they operate, and troubling because of the difficulties that occur while trying to form some sort of census on the homeless. The homeless situation in general seems to have flaws when it comes to figuring out how to help those who are without homes. It seems very difficult to take an accurate census of the homeless since they do not have an address that one can mail census forms to. The article discussed how normally a census is conducted at homeless shelters, which is a good way to get a grasp on the size of the homeless population, but the problem is that not all members of the homeless population go to shelters.

When it comes to Columbia's homeless problem I was very surprised at how many homeless there are in the city. Coming from a major metropolitan city, Chicago, I am used to seeing homeless people, but I honestly did not expect to see many, if any, homeless when I chose to go to college at the University of Missouri. Columbia is a smaller town, but from my own experience it seems like, per capita, it has a high homeless rate, and I don't know what the explanation for that could be.

This is an ongoing problem in this country and throughout the world, not just in Columbia, Missouri. I was happy to see the Missourian address the issue, and report on the state of Columbia's homeless situation.

Publish Date: January 25, 2006 issue of the Missourian.