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Looming shutdown: Seniors blame Harrisburg for county’s financial pickle

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The Brian Setzer Orchestra to perform at F.M. Kirby Center in Wilkes-Barre on Christmas Rocks! Tour

<p>WILKES-BARRE &#8212; Homeless people don&#8217;t keep hours.</p><p>They don&#8217;t decide what time of day they will be without shelter.</p><p>Homelessness is a 24/7/365 experience.</p><p>Somebody needs to tell students at King&#8217;s College &#8212; and any other college that tries to simulate the homeless experience &#8212; it takes commitment to truly get a feel of what homelessness is like.</p><p>It doesn&#8217;t allow for studying, over-sleeping, or doing something else.</p><p>Homeless is just that &#8212; homeless.</p><p>The homeless people I have encountered aren&#8217;t sitting in a box texting friends.</p><p>&#8220;Hey what&#8217;s up? I&#8217;m homeless. But only until 2 p.m., then I&#8217;m good. Wanna get a burger?&#8221;</p><p>If you want to make a statement by simulating the life of a homeless person, make the commitment. Even though it is only for an hour or two, be homeless, act homeless, let your real world go.</p><p>The King&#8217;s College &#8220;60-hour homeless experience&#8221; was a good idea in concept, but it fell short on execution. When I arrived at 10 a.m. Monday to interview participants, the two big boxes that were to serve as temporary homes for these student simulators were empty.</p><p>The simulation was supposed to begin at 8 a.m., but by 10 a.m., no students were pretending to be homeless.</p><p>Monday was a nice day. Temperatures were mild. Yet, no students were there. No thinking inside the box. So outside the boxes, I was thinking what the heck is the point here?</p><p>A college spokesperson and a faculty member offered weak explanations &#8212; mix-up in scheduling, unexpected conflicts, etc. None of these mattered. The college had planned to simulate being homeless to raise awareness on campus for the plight of the homeless.</p><p>I stopped by later and found a student sitting in one of the boxes. We talked and he offered insightful comments about the simulation and what he, personally, was learning from it. Now we&#8217;re getting somewhere, I thought.</p><p>I stopped back a few more times to check out the boxes. A couple times they were empty. A few times one student was observed. One time, I saw two students in the boxes.</p><p>Some students bought into the project. Some did their part. But not all.</p><p>Online comments on a story about the simulation we ran Tuesday suggest students should get a more realistic sampling of being homeless. One person suggested students should sleep under a bridge and deal with &#8220;the bugs, rats, snakes and fellow camp mates.&#8221;</p><p>That&#8217;s not necessary, but it would be good to hear about the conditions homeless people deal with every second of every day. Perhaps a program, inviting homeless people or advocates to give a graphic presentation on the realities of being homeless would deliver a more effective impact.</p><p>Another comment talked about the superficial approach to helping the homeless. That makes us wonder if all that could be done for homeless people is being done.</p><p>There has been talk of establishing a permanent homeless shelter for men. That&#8217;s all that has happened &#8212; talk. There are programs that try to help, but funding isn&#8217;t there.</p><p>In the meantime, we have a very real problem of homelessness in front of us every day. We may try to ignore it, but it&#8217;s there.</p><p>What we need is to impress upon everybody something more needs to be done.</p><p>Placing a sign with staggering statistics in front of two sometimes empty appliance boxes won&#8217;t get the job done.</p><p>This area needs to get serious about this issue &#8212; especially when it comes to homeless men. There are solid programs for homeless women, like Ruth&#8217;s Place, where the outcomes are positive. We need the same thing for homeless men.</p><p>We see the statistics. We attend the awareness programs. We watch the homeless walk among us.</p><p>Yet we don&#8217;t do enough to seriously address the issue.</p><p>Addressing societal issues is more complex than the superficiality of speeches, programs and simulations. Several issues pervade our society but are inadequately addressed. Solutions are never easy and lasting remedies will cost money, effort and commitment.</p><p>We can&#8217;t let these serious problems be reduced to the level of campaign promises.</p><p>We know what the problems are.</p><p>We need to do all we can to fix them.</p><style>
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<div class="neCaption">Bill O&#8217;Boyle </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/web1_Oboyle_Bill-2-11.jpg</photo0><caption0>Bill O&#8217;Boyle </caption0><photoCredit0></photoCredit0></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/web1_TTL111915homeless1.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">Students at Kings College recently simulated homeless life to raise awareness of the issue. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo1>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/web1_TTL111915homeless1.jpg</photo1><caption1>Students at Kings College recently simulated homeless life to raise awareness of the issue. </caption1><photoCredit1>Clark Van Orden | Times Leader </photoCredit1></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p>By Bill O&#8217;Boyle</p><p>boboyle@www.timesleader.com</p></bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta><p>Reach Bill O&#8217;Boyle at 570-991-6118 or on Twitter @TLBillOBoyle.</p></shirttailMeta></div>

In Focus: Homeless people are not homeless only when it’s convenient