March and vigil to shed light on homelessness – Zanesville Times Recorder

SOS Zanesville is a newly formed group whose goal is to serve as a distress signal for those who are in crisis due to issues such as homelessness. Pictured from left to right are SOS Zanesville and Zanesville Think Tank on Poverty members Marcia Hartman, Lesha Farias, Samantha Crawford, Steve Stewart, Wendy Tarr and Adam Binckley.(Photo: Submitted)

ZANESVILLE This Friday, a group of local activists and members of the homeless community will be sending a cry for help, without making any noise at all.

An informal group called SOS Zanesville, which was formed as a distress signal to support those in crisis, will hold a dinner at SaintThomas Aquinas Church at 5 p.m. Friday, followed by a silent procession and candlelight vigil in downtown Zanesville. Organizers of the event hope to raise awareness on housing issues in the city and encourage short term solutions, such as a warming shelter, as well as long term ones.

We want to keep attention on it, I think its easy for peopleto be aware of something but if theyre not familiar with the ramifications that people deal with on a daily basis its easy to forget about it, said Wendy Tarr, director of the Vincentian Ohio Action Network, who is helping with the event.We need to have continued attention and understanding of the urgency of this issue and thats really the purpose of this event.

The route of the procession has not yet been determined, but will begin at Saint Thomas after the dinner. The walk will end in a candlelight vigil at an undetermined location downtown.

The dinner and following procession are open to anyone in the community and organizers hope to include those who are directly affected by the city's housing issues. Members of various community groups, such as the Zanesville Think Tank on Poverty and Friends of Putnam, along with members of faith-based organizations, have partnered to host the event under the SOS Zanesville group.

Its like an outgrowth of a lot of different activity thats already been going on in the community," Tarr said.We want to build collaboration and the issues that were talking about are really long term ... This is really just one event but SOSis like a distress call, and housing isnt the only issue where people are in distress and calling out for help.

Zanesville City Council is considering an ordinance to adopt a housing needs assessment that showed zero vacancies in surveyed government subsidized apartments, 350 households on the Housing Choice Voucher wait list and concluded "very low-income renters have limited options available."

The survey's findings, along with the arrival of winter weather and struggles to start another warming shelter, led the group to hold the event. Members of SOS Zanesville and related organizations are still searching for another property owner to come forward and help start a shelter.

Theres nowhere for people to go, Tarr said. So thats a real challenge and we know that takes a coordinated effort to address.

With Friday's silent procession and candlelight vigil, Tarr said the event is aiming to convey the severity of housing and shelter needs in Zanesville.

Its kind of a somber issue. Its dark, its cold. We want there to be light for hopeto show that theres hope and that theres also a need for everybody to be bringing light and hope to the situation, Tarr said. People might die in the cold, and we dont want to see that. We dont want to see that and sometimes just showing up and being present on an issue is whats necessary to get the ball rolling."

TRobertson@gannett.com

740-450-6752

Twitter: @TomRobertsonTR

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March and vigil to shed light on homelessness - Zanesville Times Recorder