SEBRING — In the living room, there's a couch, but no chairs, no coffee table, not even a painting on the wall. Visitors sit at the kitchen table. In the bedrooms, there are two bunk bed mattresses, but no bed frame. And nothing else. Paul isn't a minimalist, he was homeless last week. Until two weeks ago, Paul, who didn't want to give his last name, was living in a domestic violence shelter with his children, and was one of 15 Highlands County residents given a place to live by the Agency for Community Treatment Services Inc. "We need a homeless shelter in Highlands County, bad," said Terri McClelland, the local ACTS housing case manager, who helps the homeless. ...more

February 7, 2008

There is a deepening sense of foreboding and hopelessness in this South Wales market town as the number of young people who have killed themselves keeps rising. The death toll stands at seven. ...more

January 24, 2008