‘How Many Homeless?’

I was both amused and outraged at the piece by Kondratas. Homelessness is a critically serious problem for a large number of people in our country. By the nature of the problem, it is very difficult to get an exact count on the problem. However, those public and private agencies that try to serve the needs of the homeless agree that the problem has mushroomed since the Reagan depression of 1981-82.

It is clear that regardless of what the correct number of homeless is, most cities and agencies are overwhelmed by the problem. The real issue is not to get an exact census of the homeless population but to do something about the horrible problems encountered by these people.

Suppose the number of homeless is closer to 1 million than 2 million, what does Kondratas propose to aid those folks? Are these problems any less severe because the universe is not as large?

Kondratas suggests that Mitch Snyder of the Community for Creative Nonviolence has chutzpah and is hysterical about the problem. If there is chutzpah anywhere it is with a President Reagan who suggests that the homeless like to sleep on grates in the winter and with the Heritage Foundation, which obfuscates critical social concerns.

The problems of the homeless deserve immediate, specific and substantive attention which means money--not diversionary trips into right-wing statistical exercise.

WILLIAM POWERS

Sacramento