Beyiond the Byline: Time to ask, and answer, those serious questions

WILKES-BARRE — We see them every day — they are right there in front of us.

We usually either don’t notice them, or we choose to ignore them.

But they are there and their numbers are growing.

“They” are the homeless.

On Friday, I went to the Keystone Mission off of Coal Street to talk to Justin Behrens, the CEO of the organization that is trying its very best to address the homeless issue.

Behrens was in the middle of a 24-hour online plea to solicit help in his mission, if you will, to establish a transformation center for the homeless in Luzerne County.

Frankly, this is way overdue. And it’s the least we as a society can do to help people who for many reasons, good and bad, have lost their jobs, lost their battle with addiction and who have lost their direction in life. They have lost their hope to be better — to again be functional members of society.

They need help — our help. They need us to be more compassionate and understanding. They need our elected officials to find the funding to establish the Transformation Center and they need they need a program that, as Behrens so eloquently said, a place to provide far more than a place to sleep at night before returning to the streets.

While I was at Keystone Mission, I met Kirby Savage who without hesitation told me that he is a 54-year-old recovering crack addict who says the Keystone Mission saved his life.

Savage was eager to do what he can to help get the message out and he talked about why he feels it’s necessary.

“They got me off the street,” Savage said of Keystone Mission. “They gave me food and clothing and helped me stop using that garbage.”

Savage said he was sleeping in dark corners of Public Square night after night until he finally convinced himself that he needed help.

“I just quit,” he said of his drug habit. “I wasn’t paying my rent. All I wanted was that garbage. Homeless people would get help at a center. They would get shelter, food, clothing and guidance.”

There are many more like Savage who have become reliant on drugs and alcohol, preferring to get drunk or high every day, rather than try to get where Savage is — back to reality. The homeless need this community to give them a chance to get off the streets and to be given another chance.

Behrens said his 24-hour online discussion was aimed at getting the word out about the need for a “transformation center” in Luzerne County. Behrens said he prefers transformation center over homeless shelter because the objective is to get homeless people back on track and to return them to society with jobs and a purpose.

“A transformation center is about changing a person’s life,” Behrens said. “We will address why they are homeless and we will work with them to make them sustainable. It wouldn’t just be a place for them to sleep and leave in the morning.”

Behrens wants to bring all stakeholders together to begin the dialogue. He said first and foremost is to find a location that would be suitable and acceptable.

“We have to start asking the seriously hard questions,” Behrens said. “We have to find a location that will work and we have to secure the funding needed to establish it and to get it up and running.”

Behrens said the homeless population in Luzerne County has been estimated at 182, but he said the Keystone Mission sees about 230 on a regular basis. He said the St. Vincent de Paul Kitchen serves many more meals than that every day it’s open.

It’s time to start asking, and answering, those hard questions.