
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, March 20, 1990                   TAG: 9003202766
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A6   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

NEED AN ACCURATE COUNT OF HOMELESS

SOME OF the reformers and crusaders in our world never cease to amaze me. The latest round of foolishness substituted for clear thinking is the tearing up of census forms by advocates who are urging the homeless not to cooperate in the special census for them.

It seems that they all want us to do something about the problem, yet virtually every move in that direction meets with nothing but resistance. Sometimes it seems that the homeless advocates don't want a solution, because then they wouldn't have a cause for which to fight (and could it be that an accurate count of the homeless might just show that their claims are a little on the high side?).

At any rate, no problem can be solved without first properly defining it; and as a taxpayer who would help foot the bill, I certainly don't want to take the homeless advocates' version as the only definition. Only a fool would try to solve such an enormous problem without first getting as close to an accurate count as possible of the number of people involved. The special census should be taken, and if the homeless advocates really want to do something about homelessness in America, they would do well to get out there and help with it.\ ED KOHINKE SR.\ ROANOKE COUNTY

by CNB