Homeless

Starving and freezing on a garbage dump behind her owner's home, Sophia was only able to walk on her hind legs when she was rescued. Next week, she will star in the Shakespearan play "Macbeth," assuming the role of "Man's Best Friend. " Thanks to the Baltimore Humane Society, homeless dogs and cats will have the opportunity to star in famous productions throughout the year with The Baltimore Shakespeare Factory. The acting company is helping to get these animals adopted, giving them a full-page "actor's bio" in the playbill and providing the Baltimore Humane Society with an information table at each show.

Helen Reightler's family and friends worried about what would happen to the 43-year-old recovering heroin addict living on the streets. But the delicate balance between looking out for a loved one and being fed up with the troubles she brought with her had tipped, and they had had enough. Two weeks ago, police say, Reightler was on a bench along Pratt Street when she was stabbed in the neck by a homeless man who started an argument about some cardboard she was sleeping on. She was paralyzed and, while in the hospital, came down with a fever, later slipping into shock.

FOR three years I have been a volunteer on Saturday mornings at Booth House, the Salvation Army's shelter for homeless women and children in Baltimore.I usually read stories to the children and bring juice and cookies with my art supplies -- glue, scissors, crayons, etc. -- so that we can make pictures together. A fellow volunteer, Paul, who is wonderful with the children, helps pass out the supplies and encourages everyone, from 4 to 16 years old, with their creations.Some of the children have only been in the shelter for a few days or a few hours, and they are extremely shy or perhaps just frightened in their new surroundings.

Health Care for the Homeless in Baltimore has received a $858,333 federal grant that will allow it to treat 750 more patients. The money is part of $128.6 million in grants the Department of Health and Human Services announced it was giving out Wednesday to expand community health centers across the country under health care reform. Health Care for the Homeless is the only Maryland organization to recieve money. The funding is expected to create 5,640 jobs by creating new health centers, the government said.

A homeless man was sentenced yesterday to life in prison, with all but 30 years suspended, for fatally beating another homeless man near an Anne Arundel County shelter and robbing him of money a relative had lent him. Allan Jake Clark, a 23-year-old with a history of drug problems, was convicted of savagely beating Michael Walter Evans Sr., 54, for taking his bed at the homeless shelter in Glen Burnie. Clarke then took $500 that Evans borrowed from his brother and spent it on powder and rock cocaine in what prosecutor Mark Tyler called a "drug joy ride."

Homelessness and Howard County. The words don't seem to belong in the same sentence. Homelessness and the city? It's a given. But not in the super-affluent, intellectual, suburban nirvana of Howard County.Yet, at least 700 individuals and families find themselves homeless over the course of a year in Howard County. The fact that they are largely invisible to most residents is testament to the charity shown by some people. But it is not enough.Grassroots, a non-profit agency based in Columbia that runs the county's only homeless shelter, is having a financial crisis itself.

A 29-year-old homeless man who was charged with killing a man for his tennis shoes may be linked to the deaths of at least six other homeless men since 1987, Baltimore police said yesterday.Alvin Lewis Milan was arrested Monday at the Helping Up Mission in the 1000 block of East Baltimore Street and charged with first-degree murder, said Detective Kevin J. Davis of the homicide unit.His arrest came after police received information linking him to the slaying of Kenneth Maurice Smith, 25, who was found bludgeoned to death Sept.

I get sick of the homeless, and I get paid to work for them. It happens when I walk through the city and suddenly realize after five blocks that I've left the office wearing a sandwich board saying ''Ask this man for money.''It happens more often when I look the part of an attorney. When I look like a student, or a jogger, the requests for money diminish and often times cease, yet the amount of money in my pocket remains constant. I've registered my complaint with some of these street entrepreneurs.

Baltimore's plan to spend about $6 million to create a permanent shelter for the homeless may strike some as a costly concession that the homeless will always be with us. But people are constantly forced out of their homes for a variety of reasons. Having a place that's devoted to helping in emergency situations as well as getting people into permanent homes is an effective way of dealing with a continuing problem. On any given night in Baltimore, 3,000 people are homeless, according to city officials.

Innterim will hold an open house from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. Sunday at its homeless shelter for low-income women and their children at 112 Sudbrook Road.The shelter is located in the former St. Charles Borromeo convent in Pikesville.Nine Baltimore County women and their children will stay at the shelter while continuing their education.The purpose of the Innterim program is to provide educational and vocational training opportunities to allow the women to become self-sufficient, said director Gerry Buchanan.