She feels helpless about it, wondering whether to leave him food each night or to call the Human Services department for help. Another former student, in divinity school in Atlanta, writes about his frustration in doing anything for dozens of homeless people he sees all around. Housing and Urban Development Secretary Cuomo released an alarming study this month that shows frightening rises in homelessness nationwide, even in the midst of the current economic boom. American homelessness has become a national problem and borders on being a national scandal. Those many who are left behind often suffer from mental illness, illiteracy, diseases, and child abuse.
Next year is a national census year.
Census-taking has become an impersonal business. Most of us will answer questions on a mail form, some will answer phone surveys or computer surveys, and many will provide information through annual tax returns. We don't have to trek somewhere every ten years to provide census information for our current versions of Caesar Augustus. We can stay in our current homes, and the census takers will find us there. We make our treks to our old home towns because we want to, not because we are ordered to.