Helping Baltimore's Homeless: Is Affordable Housing the Key?

The nation observes Thanksgiving on Thursday, and for most of us, it will be a day of traditional feasting, and enjoying the warmth of family and friends. But for thousands of people, the challenges of housing insecurity will make Thanksgiving just another day in which they must wrestle with a persistent problem that's hard for most people even to imagine.By the city’s official count, there are nearly 3,000 people who are experiencing homelessness in Baltimore. But housing advocates point to the people who are likely NOT included in that figure. People who are doubling up with other families, for example. And, according to the city school system, there are 3,000 homeless school children in the city. So, logically, the total number of people without homes in our midst, in our city, could be many thousands MORE than 3,000.Are we doing enough. and are we doing what works, to help homeless people get back on their feet? What more can be done and what should be done? Joining Tom this afternoon in Studio A to address these questions: Kevin Lindamood, the president and CEO of Healthcare for the Homeless, and Antonia Fasanelli, an attorney and executive director of the Homeless Persons Representation Project, Maryland’s only legal services organization dedicated to eliminating homelessness.And on the line from the University of Maryland School of Social Work in Baltimore, adjunct professor Lauren Siegel, a social worker and co-founder of Mosaic Makers, a non-profit community arts program, who has spent the past 30 years helping people to understand -- and cope with -- homelessness.Email us at [email protected], tweet us: @MiddayWYPR, or call us at 410-662-8780.