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The Brown and White Vol. 134 No. 10 Tuesday, March 6, 2018 ‘All the Lehigh News First’ First-years fight for gun reform Homeless seek shelter in Lehigh Valley By LAURYN RAGONE Deputy News Editor See SHELTERS Page 4 By EMMA DILLON B&W Staff In the aftermath of the Parkland shooting, three Lehigh first-years realized they could take a stand on gun violence. Over the course of three days, and with very little marketing, Ryan Bailey, Sara Boyd and See MARCH Page 3 By LAURYN RAGONE Deputy News Editor Courtesy of The Synergy Project Staff members of The Synergy Project, a street outreach program, frequently find furniture and encampments in wooded areas in the Lehigh Valley. The program assists youths ages 21 and younger in Pennsylvania. Chloe Sider gained interest from more than 180 students in attend-ing “March For Our Lives,” a planned demonstration against gun violence in Washington, D.C., on March 24. The trio has deemed their effort “Lehigh for Our Lives.” Boyd, who is a photogra-pher for The Brown and White, described the march as stage one of the club’s initiative. After the march, Boyd, Bailey and Sider plan to form a club called Lehigh University Student Political Action Committee to increase Lehigh students’ civic engage-ment. ‘HIDDEN AND UNNOTICED’ Local programs help homeless population It wasn’t until Julian Foster put together the support rods of a tent at an Allentown encampment site that he fully understood the reality of the homeless. As soon as he finished assembling the tent, Foster would return home to fresh-running water, warm food and heat. Meanwhile, his client, a 14-year-old boy, would sleep alone in the cold, exposed to predators — rats, raccoons and mice — fighting for scraps of food and fearing other homeless people might steal his belongings. Foster was interning for The Synergy Project. “Being there, it moves you,” Foster said. “You can hear about it, but see-ing it is a whole new experience. Ever since, I’ve been more thankful and appreciate the small things that we often take for granted in life.” Since 2009, The Synergy Project, a street outreach program, has sought and assisted youth ages 21 and younger in Allentown, Bucks County, Harrisburg and Philadelphia. The Synergy Project is a subdivision of The Valley Youth House program. According to the 2017 Annual Homeless Assessment Report, there are 40,799 youth under the age of 25 who are experiencing homelessness nationwide. In the Lehigh Valley, youth homelessness is not an uncom-mon issue. Kathi Krablin, the director of grants and foundations at Valley Youth House, said there are 700 identified homeless children in the Allentown School District. She said homeless youth are a hidden and unnoticed population. Foster, now a Synergy Project out-reach coordinator, drives with his partner Tim Joyce, in a fiery red Jeep Wrangler packed to the brim with canned goods, tents, blow-up mat-tresses and socks. They search for homeless youth under bridges, inside abandoned buildings and hidden in the woods. When Joyce drives, his eyes scan the trees looking for an opening “too wide to be a deer path.” Entering the encampments, Foster and Joyce always announce their presence: “It’s Tim and Julian from See HOMELESS Page 2 Pete still has hope. A local homeless veteran, Pete fought in the Afghanistan war, and he continues to fight for a place to call his home. Originally from New Jersey, he moved about since returning from war, mostly couch surfing at his sis-ter’s New Jersey home before being kicked out. He found himself wan-dering the streets, and he eventually arrived in Bethlehem in 2000. He held job after job — cleaning Petri dishes, stocking rooms, gar-dening, delivering items — but the jobs didn’t always last. And his pay-checks didn’t cover the bills. Pete, who chose to keep his last name anonymous, is one of the 1,030 individuals identified as homeless in the Lehigh Valley. Finding warmth in the winter with wind chills below 30 degrees presents a challenge. Emergency shelters and organizations help these individuals find protection from the elements. The lack of affordable housing is a large part of this vicious cycle, and for Pete, this cycle is incessant. Pete uses Bethlehem Emergency Sheltering nightly during the winter months. He receives a warm meal, a hot shower and a mattress to sleep on — a much different experience than laying in the dirt on a tattered sleeping bag. Pete has been a guest at Bethlehem Emergency Sheltering since its opening in 2009. When he lived with his sister, during the day he searched for work, walking at a slow pace with a Budweiser beer can in his hand. What would be a 20-minute drive for someone with a car was a six-hour walk for Pete. According to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, every night in 2017, 553,742 peo-ple experienced homelessness, and about 65 percent used transitional housing or emergency shelters. The report stated in 2017, 40,056 veterans were homeless with 24,690 of them staying in transitional hous-ing or emergency shelters. But then, Pete found Hope for Veterans in 2016. The program helped him find a new job and a one-bedroom apart-ment. It paid his rent for three months. Then, the company down-sized, and Pete couldn’t afford to pay his bills. “The last place they put me up was two blocks from the (Allentown) jail,” Pete said. “I heard gunshots all hours of the night. I was scared. But it was a place to stay — out of the Courtesy of Dani Okun From left, Chloe Sider, ’21, Sara Boyd, ’21 and Ryan Bailey, ’21, stand behind their table on Feb. 27 on the front lawn. They have received over $7,000 in donations and are planning to attend the March For Our Lives demonstration in Washington, D.C.
Object Description
Title | Brown and White Vol. 134 no. 10 |
Date | 2018-03-06 |
Month | 03 |
Day | 06 |
Year | 2018 |
Volume | 134 |
Issue | 10 |
Type | Newspaper |
Source Repository | Lehigh University |
Coverage | United States, Pennsylvania, Lehigh, South Bethlehem |
LCCN | 7019854 |
Source Repository Code | LYU |
Digital Responsible Institution | Lehigh University |
Digital Responsible Institution Code | LYU |
Issue/Edition Pattern | Semiweekly |
Title Essay | Published twice a week during the college year by the students of Lehigh University |
Description
Title | Page 1 |
Date | 2018-03-06 |
FullText | The Brown and White Vol. 134 No. 10 Tuesday, March 6, 2018 ‘All the Lehigh News First’ First-years fight for gun reform Homeless seek shelter in Lehigh Valley By LAURYN RAGONE Deputy News Editor See SHELTERS Page 4 By EMMA DILLON B&W Staff In the aftermath of the Parkland shooting, three Lehigh first-years realized they could take a stand on gun violence. Over the course of three days, and with very little marketing, Ryan Bailey, Sara Boyd and See MARCH Page 3 By LAURYN RAGONE Deputy News Editor Courtesy of The Synergy Project Staff members of The Synergy Project, a street outreach program, frequently find furniture and encampments in wooded areas in the Lehigh Valley. The program assists youths ages 21 and younger in Pennsylvania. Chloe Sider gained interest from more than 180 students in attend-ing “March For Our Lives,” a planned demonstration against gun violence in Washington, D.C., on March 24. The trio has deemed their effort “Lehigh for Our Lives.” Boyd, who is a photogra-pher for The Brown and White, described the march as stage one of the club’s initiative. After the march, Boyd, Bailey and Sider plan to form a club called Lehigh University Student Political Action Committee to increase Lehigh students’ civic engage-ment. ‘HIDDEN AND UNNOTICED’ Local programs help homeless population It wasn’t until Julian Foster put together the support rods of a tent at an Allentown encampment site that he fully understood the reality of the homeless. As soon as he finished assembling the tent, Foster would return home to fresh-running water, warm food and heat. Meanwhile, his client, a 14-year-old boy, would sleep alone in the cold, exposed to predators — rats, raccoons and mice — fighting for scraps of food and fearing other homeless people might steal his belongings. Foster was interning for The Synergy Project. “Being there, it moves you,” Foster said. “You can hear about it, but see-ing it is a whole new experience. Ever since, I’ve been more thankful and appreciate the small things that we often take for granted in life.” Since 2009, The Synergy Project, a street outreach program, has sought and assisted youth ages 21 and younger in Allentown, Bucks County, Harrisburg and Philadelphia. The Synergy Project is a subdivision of The Valley Youth House program. According to the 2017 Annual Homeless Assessment Report, there are 40,799 youth under the age of 25 who are experiencing homelessness nationwide. In the Lehigh Valley, youth homelessness is not an uncom-mon issue. Kathi Krablin, the director of grants and foundations at Valley Youth House, said there are 700 identified homeless children in the Allentown School District. She said homeless youth are a hidden and unnoticed population. Foster, now a Synergy Project out-reach coordinator, drives with his partner Tim Joyce, in a fiery red Jeep Wrangler packed to the brim with canned goods, tents, blow-up mat-tresses and socks. They search for homeless youth under bridges, inside abandoned buildings and hidden in the woods. When Joyce drives, his eyes scan the trees looking for an opening “too wide to be a deer path.” Entering the encampments, Foster and Joyce always announce their presence: “It’s Tim and Julian from See HOMELESS Page 2 Pete still has hope. A local homeless veteran, Pete fought in the Afghanistan war, and he continues to fight for a place to call his home. Originally from New Jersey, he moved about since returning from war, mostly couch surfing at his sis-ter’s New Jersey home before being kicked out. He found himself wan-dering the streets, and he eventually arrived in Bethlehem in 2000. He held job after job — cleaning Petri dishes, stocking rooms, gar-dening, delivering items — but the jobs didn’t always last. And his pay-checks didn’t cover the bills. Pete, who chose to keep his last name anonymous, is one of the 1,030 individuals identified as homeless in the Lehigh Valley. Finding warmth in the winter with wind chills below 30 degrees presents a challenge. Emergency shelters and organizations help these individuals find protection from the elements. The lack of affordable housing is a large part of this vicious cycle, and for Pete, this cycle is incessant. Pete uses Bethlehem Emergency Sheltering nightly during the winter months. He receives a warm meal, a hot shower and a mattress to sleep on — a much different experience than laying in the dirt on a tattered sleeping bag. Pete has been a guest at Bethlehem Emergency Sheltering since its opening in 2009. When he lived with his sister, during the day he searched for work, walking at a slow pace with a Budweiser beer can in his hand. What would be a 20-minute drive for someone with a car was a six-hour walk for Pete. According to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, every night in 2017, 553,742 peo-ple experienced homelessness, and about 65 percent used transitional housing or emergency shelters. The report stated in 2017, 40,056 veterans were homeless with 24,690 of them staying in transitional hous-ing or emergency shelters. But then, Pete found Hope for Veterans in 2016. The program helped him find a new job and a one-bedroom apart-ment. It paid his rent for three months. Then, the company down-sized, and Pete couldn’t afford to pay his bills. “The last place they put me up was two blocks from the (Allentown) jail,” Pete said. “I heard gunshots all hours of the night. I was scared. But it was a place to stay — out of the Courtesy of Dani Okun From left, Chloe Sider, ’21, Sara Boyd, ’21 and Ryan Bailey, ’21, stand behind their table on Feb. 27 on the front lawn. They have received over $7,000 in donations and are planning to attend the March For Our Lives demonstration in Washington, D.C. |
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