The Voice

Issue date: 11/15/07 Section: news

Media Credit: Caitlin Kohl Dr. Kozloff addresses students at the third annual conference. Dr. Gary Clark, leader of the Northeastern Pennsylvania Alliance Against Homelessness showed pictures he had taken over the past ten years of several homeless people with the intentions of, "putting a face on homelessness."

Sun spills through the windows of the stolen car as Leon drives through Atlantic City. He leaves the shelter of the car for the dirty sand under the bustling boardwalk and the misty shower of the ocean. As the months pass, all he has is a blur of similar days and fragments of broken wine bottles and Salvation Army clothes surrounding his boardwalk space.
"My life and health deteriorate out here," Leon said "I have nothing, so what do I do now?"

What Leon does now is scatter some trash because the empty bag is the cleanest garment he owns. Now that he is more suitably clothed, he goes to the bus station, where he tells a driver that he lost his ticket. He doesn't have money, which means he has no way to get home.
"Actually, my stolen car was stolen," Leon said. "But I told him what I needed to survive."

After more talking, Leon, with a hotdog and soda in hand and a new shirt on his back, is finally on his way home: home to the streets of Wilkes Barre, Pennsylvania.

Leon, by telling his story, gave a voice to the more than 750,000 homeless people in America and was one of the panelists at the third annual conference of the Northeastern Pennsylvania Alliance Against Homelessness.

"We're trying to make a difference in a society that has so much apathy, and they can easily turn to another direction or subject," Gary Clark, leader of the Alliance said.

During the workshop, Clark showed photos, which he has taken over the past 10 years, of several homeless people to "put a face on homelessness."

"This is Steve, a man who was 2.5 years in an apartment and sober," Clark said.
Not only are the homeless affected, but their families are as well.

According to Frankie, Steve's wife, "Don't think that just because you're in college that it can't happen to you someday. I fell in love with this man when I was 17, had children, and it was wonderful until the bottle of Jim Bean was more important than the bottle for the baby. He left 12 years ago, and the next time I saw him, I was bringing him home in a wooden box," Frankie said.

Continued...

Page 1 of 2 next >

Article Tools