From staff reports

Homelessness doesn’t exist in Freeborn County.

Saturday, September 25, 1999

Homelessness doesn’t exist in Freeborn County. Everyone has a home and there are apartments available for all newcomers. Now, let’s wake up from the dream world. There are homeless people in Freeborn County.

The reason some are able to deny that fact is our homeless families aren’t building cardboard neighborhoods under our bridges.

Freeborn County’s homeless aren’t wandering the streets looking for a heating grate to sleep on.

Instead, homeless families in our communities are living with friends and relatives or sleeping in their cars.

During the day, many are working or taking care of their children. They aren’t on a street corner begging for spare change.

That’s why some can force themselves to believe there are no homeless in Freeborn County.

Still, the lack of affordable homes and affordable apartments for families are leaving many newcomers with nowhere to turn.

It’s time to wake up and start understanding the problems others face when they arrive in our cities looking for work and homes.

The work is here. The homes are not.

It’s time to wake up and lift our heads out of the sand and start doing something to rectify the situation. Simply denying its existence doesn’t make the problem go away.

The only solution is accepting the truth and working toward making it a thing of the past.