Speak Up: How should local governments address homelessness?

There were discussions in both Dover and Milford recently regarding how to best serve the homeless population. Meanwhile, the Springboard Collaborative Pallet Shelter Village in Georgetown, which opened about a year ago, has had success serving unhoused individuals with tiny homes and various other resources. What are your ideas on how to stem the seemingly increasing numbers of homeless people? What is working and what isn’t?

• This is a very hard question and situation. Getting them off the streets and into small homes is great, but afterward, who pays the electricity and heating bills? The town? The taxpayers? But, after the homeless are homed, they need to get clean clothes, food, maybe help for jobs. So, they can slowly feel important again in society and their personal life. Maybe a ministry could help them adjust. But they have to want help and want to get help for it all to work. Georgetown proved it can be done. — Denise Bella