The people and agencies that provide services to the homeless in the Upper Peninsula met in Marquette late last week to develop strategies to deal with a growing issue.

The news from the Alger-Marquette Continuum of Care’s first annual U.P. Homeless Summit, bluntly stating, was not good and could not have come as a surprise to anyone paying attention to the issue of homelessness in the region. According to reports, there are about 500 homeless persons living in Marquette County alone in the U.P., and many more in the other 14 U.P. counties.

“We want to take a comprehensive approach,” Doug Russell, executive director of Room at the Inn, said for a Mining Journal story on the matter. “We’re looking for solutions, and this was a chance to have a more comprehensive conversation. There’s all these resources out there to address homelessness, and it’s about connecting the dots and getting people in independent living situations.”

The challenges facing homeless persons in the U.P. aren’t radically different than those from inner city Detroit are up against. Substance abuse, mental health issues and a dearth of employment rank among the toughest to overcome. Conferences like the one held last week in Marquette provide a means to coordinate resources from agency to agency.

Because small U.P. cities like Marquette, Escanaba, Iron Mountain and Houghton are not beset by panhandlers and other overt acts that underscore the issue of homelessness, it’s not hard to simply look past the problem and miss what’s there. That’s why we support the kind of coordination the conference should help start and sustain.

Mining Journal (Marquette)