To the editor:

My thoughts about the homeless in Lawrence and Douglas County:

I believe that from both the Judeo-Christian and humanist value perspectives we have a community ethical responsibility to provide care and services for the homeless. Similar values are inherent in both Islam and Buddhism, as I understand them. I have sympathy with the business owners and citizens who are bothered by the behavior of some of the homeless people but, with the parable of the Good Samaritan in mind, I believe we must do something as a community about their situations.

I realize also that there are broader social-economic forces underlying the situation of the homeless in the United States, e.g., the closing of state mental health institutions. (When I was a youth growing up in western Pennsylvania in the 1920s and ’30s, we had a county “poor house” to care for people. I can recall men coming into the small town early in the morning to collect cigar and cigarette butts to use for their smokes.)

I don’t have the answers about what the community should be doing, but I do believe we must do what we can and there are many things we can do to help locally: working with the Salvation Army, the Lawrence Open Shelter, the Jubilee Cafe, etc. As has been reported, 35 to 40 percent of people experiencing homelessness have a mental illness diagnosis. Furthermore, it is my understanding that a significant majority of our homeless are indigenous to Lawrence and Douglas County.

Howard J. Baumgartel,

Lawrence