Homeless advocates try to raise awarness

With Thanksgiving next week, advocates for Iowa’s homeless are planning events throughout THIS week to raise awareness. Jim McWeeny is spokesman for the Churches United Shelter in Des Moines, which is helping sponsor turkey giveaways, a celebrity carve-off and a “sleepout” on Friday night.McWeeny says the record warmth of last week is fast-fleeting and the temperatures are getting back to normal for November — which is pretty cold to stay outside in all night.This is National Hunger and Homeless Awareness Week. McWeeny says regular people won’t know what it’s like to walk a mile in the shoes of a homeless person until they also spend the night in a cold cardboard box.A 1998 Iowa State University study found Iowa had more than 26-thousand homeless people. Fifty-five percent of them were under the age of 18. Seventy-two percent lived in only eight Iowa counties — Dubuque, Black Hawk, Johnson, Linn, Polk, Pottawattamie, Scott and Woodbury.