Thursday event at Capitol displays, collects blankets and essentials for the homeless
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Scott LaMar
Aired; December 20th, 2023.
It’s difficult to get an accurate count of the number of homeless people in the U.S.
Last January, the federal government took a one-night snapshot and concluded more than 653,000 were unhoused that night.
Many say that estimate grossly under counts the number of homeless people.
Whatever the real number is, everyone agrees there are more people who are homeless now than before the pandemic.
There’s a event at the State Capitol in Harrisburg Thursday to provide some essentials like blankets to homeless people, while also displaying blankets that have been contributed.
It’s called The Homeless Memorial Blanket Project and organizer Pat LaMarche was on The Spark Wednesday,”We’ve used the longest night of the year to memorialize (homeless) people for a long time. Several years ago, a group of us got together and thought, Well, we could do that, and then also help the ones that are still living. So we wanted to make this massive art installation of handmade blankets. All the blankets are handmade, whether they’re knitted, crocheted, quilted, woven. And then at the end of the night, we distribute them to individuals and agencies that can get those out to people in need. So it started out as that. This year, we have morphed a little to highlight, especially children, youth and infants and babies living in homelessness. Is there such an enormous misconception about who the average homeless guy is? You know, this person living under the bridge, which is true. And sometimes those people living under the bridge are children with their families, unaccompanied youth. The difference between you and a person in homelessness is poverty. So poverty can affect people of every age. And unfortunately, does.”
An explanation for the increased number of homeless is programs to help with rent that were implemented during the pandemic have ended. LaMarche weighed in,”Housing is the single most significant expense. The average household dedicates more than 30% of its budget to housing. The average American renter pays between 13 and 16 hundred dollars a month for an apartment. And if you’re a low wage worker, which most of these kids parents are, you can’t afford to live anywhere.”
Rents have increased substanially since the pandemic and are one of the main drivers of higher inflation rates.
LaMarche talked about the Homeless Memorial Blanket Project,”(Thousands of ) hours of work on the part of the people who hand-made all the blankets. So, it’s a real sign of love. There’s a lot of people who thought, I don’t think I can do anything about homelessness, but, hey, I can make a blanket. People feel really powerless. And so what this display does is it’s a gorgeous exhibit of love and caring. The other thing that we’re hoping is if you come and see 700 blankets down the steps of the State Capitol, that’s what it would look like, is 700 people were laying there under that blanket. And every single person will have every one of those 700 blankets (they) will go to a person before the week is out. So, they’re real numbers and they’re real people. Last year we did the West Lawn of the U.S. Capitol. We had 1200 blankets. They’re all gone within a week. There are real people that will be under these blankets.”
