The City of Hutchinson is seeing a rise in the homeless population, and community leaders said they want to do what they can to help. People sleeping under bridges is becoming more of a common sight in Hutchinson, but community advocates say this growing issue goes beyond not having a place to stay. “On a larger scale, there’s cuts and budgets with health care and mental health concerns and substance abuse so that directly affect homelessness, and that’s definitely something that we feel the weight and burden of that right now,” Jerome Bernard, the manager at Noel Lodge, said. The United Way of Reno County Director of Community Outreach, Valerie Taylor, said the homelessness crisis is also affecting youth. “We even see people in our high school who are unhoused, so I think that this is definitely something that is deep-rooted and is not singled out to one certain type of person,” Taylor said. The Noel Lodge, which is part of the nonprofit New Beginnings, is a temporary shelter for people to go to and has an occupancy of up to 25. Bernard said it’s a place for people to feel safe and welcome. “There’s so many different scenarios to why people are here,” Bernard said. “We tend to judge a certain group of people, saying this is the only group, but life happens to everybody.”
Source: KSN-TV
