January 10th, 2023 by WCBC Radio

The announcement last year that the Union Rescue Mission will be relocating  to North Centre Street sparked a debate during City Council meetings- with any number of citizens from that neighborhood expressing concern about the move. One development that resulted from those public debates is the scheduling of a community meeting to focus on the issue- and that is set for this Thursday at the Lavale Library. The statistics locally are trending in the wrong direction- showing that on a given night there are more than 100 people in the city without shelter. Ed Taylor Jr, president of the Cumberland Historic Cemetery Organization, told WCBC’s “Dave Norman Show” this week that in recent months there have been several incidents of the homeless setting up camps in some of the area cemeterys. He said that while there may be some legitimate hardship cases among Cumberland’s homeless population, he believes most are drug addicts or alcoholics…

Karen Lockhart has another take. She moved to Cumberland two years ago and has been providing any assistance she can to the homeless. She told WCBC that while the Union Rescue Mission offers food and shelter, that help is not without a price that many aren’t willing to pay…