We reported over the weekend on the sad case of a woman who had suffered a stroke and found herself homeless in the park across Second Street from The Post-Journal.

We didn’t share the story for a pat on the back – though the employees who did what they could to help the woman until they spoke with our Christopher Blakeslee certainly deserve one. Blakeslee, too, deserves a pat on the back for making the phone calls that got the woman the help she needed.

The real reason for sharing the story is to illustrate just how hard it is for compassionate people who want to help the homeless to help. It’s easy to help those who struggle with food insecurity. There are food pantries all over the county while organizations like the St. Susan Center or the Salvation Army have large public presences. Plus, there are public food drives regularly during the holiday season.

Compare that to the homeless. Chautauqua Opportunities is Chautauqua County’s designated provider of homeless services, but that message hasn’t reached many city residents. That much was made very evident a couple of weeks ago.

As a community we have had more than enough time to wrap our collective head around the homeless problem here that there should be no doubt which agency should receive the first call when someone finds a homeless person who needs help. Contact lists should have been created and posted publicly three years ago when the depth of the homeless issue in Jamestown first showed itself. Not all people who want to help the homeless are Internet savvy. They’re not all on Facebook. And they’re not all avid Post-Journal readers. But it’s up to agencies that provide help to spread the message about their services in as many ways as possible.

We have resources available, but if people don’t know how to enlist those services they might as well not exist.