NKY needs a place to come in from the cold

There isn't much of a constituency for homeless people. At the bottom rungs of society, they lack clout. The agencies that serve them rarely have a lot of support either. A large percentage of the homeless suffer from some form of mental illness. Sadly, a lot of them are military veterans. Estimates are rough but perhaps as many as 400,000 veterans are homeless in the U.S. on a given night. The National Coalition for Homeless Veterans cites studies saying that one in three members of the homeless population was in the military at some time.

We like to pretend the homeless aren't around. Truth be told, few of us reading this would be very excited about having a homeless shelter in our neighborhood.

But, unless your heart is hardened beyond hope, it's difficult to read stories such as one we published on a frigid Thursday that said there is no emergency cold shelter in Northern Kentucky. If you're like me, you were complaining about feeling chilled going into the garage and getting into the car. Imagine having spent all night outdoors on Wednesday night.

Mari Kass, chairman of the Northern Kentucky Housing and Homeless Coalition, told reporter Peggy O'Farrell that advocates haven't been able to find a usable location for an emergency shelter to replace one that closed in March.

It shouldn't take a huge government grant and big bureaucracy to at least meet the immediate need. It takes a group of caring people to step forward and help this coalition locate a shelter and provide enough volunteers to help when temperatures drop. Yes, I'm sure it's easier said than done. It's easier to pretend the homeless don't exist -- except that they do. Who can really know for sure, but our story says the last count found nearly 800 homeless people in Boone, Kenton and Campbell counties.