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The news that Williamsport has lost Saving Grace Shelter is deeply worrisome.
The ability of our community to assist those people without shelter, those people who are afflicted by homelessness, is a benchmark of our quality of life and our community values.
More importantly, it is a vital service for the people most affected.
We appreciate the hard work of those who keep the city's other shelters, including Wise Options, the American Rescue Workers' shelter at High and Elmira streets and, in a few increasingly cold weeks, Code Blue, operational.
We also appreciate the hard work of the staff of STEP Inc., The United Way of North Central Pennsylvania, River Valley Transit and the James V. Brown Library to place people who need assistance on the right social-services path so that their needs are better met.
Their efforts address a need many find too painful, too difficult to confront. And their work, we fear, will be even more difficult and painful when the number of beds in area shelters falls so steeply.
We trust that the agencies that help people experiencing homelessness will do the best they can with what they have.
We hope our leaders, both in government and outside of government, recognize that this issue, nationwide, statewide and, most importantly and crucially, in our own region, needs to be met with more resources.