With all the rankings and ratings put out by various groups across the nation, it’s sometimes hard to tell which ones are significant or even accurate.

Take, for instance, Lawrence’s ranking this week as the nation’s second meanest city when it comes to the treatment of homeless people.

By any measure, this ranking, issued by the National Homeless Coalition, is ridiculous. Even local advocates for Lawrence’s homeless say the ranking isn’t deserved. Three out of four homeless people interviewed for the Journal-World’s On the Street disagreed with the city being portrayed as “mean.”

The National Homeless Coalition said the ranking was justified by certain city policies and ordinances. It focused, for instance, on the city’s new “civility” ordinance, which bans aggressive panhandling and trespassing on private rooftops, a practice that poses significant dangers. It also limits sleeping or sitting on city sidewalks. The Coalition’s assessment of the “attitude” of Lawrence toward homeless people also was a factor in the rating.

It seems significant that this is the first time Lawrence has appeared in the ranking. Has an evil wind suddenly swept over our city?

What seems more likely is that because Lawrence has the courage to grapple with homelessness issues that face many communities, we have drawn unwarranted and unflattering attention to ourselves. For many years, there has been anecdotal evidence that many communities in the region, rather than struggling to provide services for homeless people, simply tell homeless people to leave town and even suggest that Lawrence might be a good place for them to land.

And, in most ways, it is. Loring Henderson, director of Lawrence’s Community Drop-In Center, pointed out after hearing about the ranking that Lawrence offers round-the-clock shelter for homeless people in various locations. Meals are available most days, and the city recently allocated funds to hire case managers to work with homeless people and help them get back on their feet.

Does this sound like a community that’s “mean” to its homeless people? A photo that appeared with the Journal-World story about the national ranking showed a homeless woman who recently had been kicked out of her home in Topeka. She and her husband now are staying with a friend in Lawrence and taking advantage of services for the homeless that are offered here. She had positioned herself on a local street corner with a sign asking for help. In the few minutes while she was being interviewed two people stopped to give her money. How mean can we get?

The city ordinances that got the national coalition’s attention are a necessary effort to protect the interests of all Lawrence residents, homeless and otherwise. It would be easier to simply eliminate services and tell homeless people to seek shelter elsewhere, but Lawrence is accepting homeless people as part of the community and seeking ways to help that population.

Maybe that’s what “mean” means to the National Homeless Coalition, but most people who objectively viewed Lawrence’s efforts to help its homeless residents would disagree with that arbitrary assessment.