Melt some cold hearts

Homeless people make most of us uncomfortable. It's just a fact.

These North Idaho nomads are easiest to deal with when they never cross our path. Huddled in tents in urban forests is right where we want them; not on the sidewalks we travel, in the stores we frequent, in the ebb and flow of our happy days and happy nights.

We choose to misunderstand them not just because it's the easy way out, but because the possibility of our one day becoming homeless scares the hell out of us. We hold our noses and brand them with the white-hot iron of irresponsibility. After all, the bad decisions they made led them to this pathetic condition, right?

Wrong. In many cases, mental illness led them here. Alcohol or drug abuse isn't the root cause; mental illness which triggers desperate self-medication measures is. Even the homeless who "choose" to live off the grid aren't mentally healthy. Don't believe that? Check out the human feces intentionally left on urban forest pathways to fend off prospective intruders to preferred campsites of the homeless. Better yet, try to carry on a conversation with somebody who "chooses" not to run in the human race.

We are enduringly grateful for organizations like St. Vincent de Paul of North Idaho. In a world where too few step forward to help the homeless, St. Vincent is always there. At least, it tries to be.

Because of too much need and too few resources, St. Vincent faces the very real prospect of not being able to provide overnight shelter this winter to homeless people in the Post Falls area. Last winter, whenever temperatures plummeted to 25 degrees or less, St. Vincent took in 35, 40, sometimes 45 or more people in Post Falls. Without shelter, where will those people go?

"I don't want anyone to die in the cold," St. Vincent's Jeff Conroy told us.

About $20,000 needs to be raised for St. Vincent de Paul of North Idaho to provide the same level of overnight shelter this winter as last. But it's not as if Conroy wants a monopoly on that service. He would be just as happy if somebody else stepped up and provided shelter on potentially lethal winter nights.

Please help some of society's most maligned and misunderstood citizens. Call Matt Hutchinson at St. Vincent, (208) 664-3095, and see what you might have to offer.