Often while I am working, I have the television on and if it is a Sunday night, I will usually be listening to "60 Minutes."

One recent episode on homelessness caused me to stop working and watch the entire segment from start to finish.

The interviewer spotlighted three families who were homeless in Florida. One family consisted of a young unemployed father and his two children who lived in a box truck.

His wife, the children's mother, had died and the father was unable to find a job in the construction industry.

The children took the interviewer for a tour of their "home," showing where they slept in the truck, their make-shift kitchen with canned goods and talked about their daily routine.

They got up early, went to gas stations to wash for the day and then went to school. Their friends did not know of their living conditions.

Surprising to me was the attitude of the children who said although it wasn't ideal, they were together as a family and they hoped to be in a home again.

Eventually, they were able to move out of the truck and into a house.

I talked about that interview for days and wondered if we had that drastic of a homeless problem in the Lehigh Valley.

A conversation with representatives from the Lehigh County Conferences of Churches and Pathways confirmed there is a huge homeless problem in the Lehigh Valley.

The Community Action Committee of the Lehigh Valley in Bethlehem produced a report, "2010 Lehigh Valley Shelter Census," which details the homeless population.

In 2010, 2,441 men, women and children were housed in nine emergency and short-term shelters in the region.

The largest group of persons sheltered were adult males (986, 40.4 percent), followed by children (780, 32 percent) and adult females (675, 27.7 percent).

Of those children in the study, 50 percent were under the age of 5 and 69.1 percent of families had two or fewer children.

The report also noted an additional 524 people who were homeless who were not counted in the shelter census.

In fact, there are situations here similar to those in Florida where housing and shelters are not available and Lehigh Valley residents are left with no choice but to live in their cars.

One such family included John*, his girlfriend and her 18-year-old son, who was a student at Northwestern Lehigh High School.

John lost his job and they lost their house in Germansville, unable to pay the mortgage.

The family found a rental property in Slatington.

Although John's girlfriend still had her job, they were unable to continue renting for longer than six months.

From there, the family put all of their belongings in storage and took a room at the Red Carpet Inn but when money ran out, they were out because the hotel did not extend credit.

They began living in their car. They parked in a 24-hour shopping center lot in Trexlertown, used the toilet facilities there and showered at friends' houses. They ate at Wendy's and other fast food restaurants.

"The worst part of sleeping in the car was being cramped up," John said.

They lived in the car during all types of weather, including snowstorms when the plows were clearing the parking lot.

John said they didn't wake the family to move the car; they waited for the family to wake up and move the car and then plowed that spot.

"On very cold nights, we would either use extra blankets or turn on the car for heat," John said.

His girlfriend's son, a senior in high school, missed many days of school because of their living conditions, but was still able to graduate with his class in June.

None of his friends knew he was homeless. He would do his homework in the car and school supplies were provided by friends if they were not able to purchase what he needed.

The family did not utilize the services of a shelter because they did not want to be separated. Shelters often have different accommodations for men and women and children.

"I was very depressed. No one would help us," John said.

John's story ends on an upbeat note as he has a job now and through the assistance of the Lehigh County Conference of Churches, they are in a rental apartment in New Tripoli.

"If there is anyone out there who is homeless, try to get help," John said. "Go to a family member, shelter or Conference of Churches."

Assistance is provided by a number of organizations including the Lehigh County Conference of Churches, which provides housing assistance, pharmaceutical assistance and a soup kitchen; the Allentown Rescue Mission which provides emergency shelter and long-term residential programs; Salvation Army which provides UGI gas, food and clothing; Pathways, which provides emergency needs including toiletries and referral and advocacy services for housing, utilities and jobs; St. Paul's Lutheran Church, Allentown, and Our Lady of Mt. Carmel Church, Allentown, for soup kitchens; Turning Point, which provides emergency shelter for victims of domestic abuse and their children; and Allentown Area Ecumenical Food Bank which provides a three day supply of emergency food once a month.

All of these organizations depend on the community for their support and volunteers to help with soup kitchens and other services.

As a community, a group of 40 organizations in Allentown and Lehigh County have put together a 10-year plan for ending chronic homelessness.

The report dated March 12 produced by the Lehigh County Conference of Churches details goals such as closing homeless camps, providing intensive social services and efforts to place residents in housing and working with prisons, hospitals and the judicial system for transitional services. Another goal is to increase the number of housing units available to those in need.

Their vision is "a city where there are no homeless individuals or families. Each person will have the support services needed to live as independently as possible in a safe, sanitary and accessible permanent house of his or her choice."

I hope this is possible, especially for the children, who find themselves in these situations through no fault of their own.

*John's name has been changed to protect his family's identity.

Debbie Galbraith

editor

East Penn Press

Salisbury Press