Articles labeled: homeless

Usually if you think about danger lurking in the brush at the edge of a baseball field, you might think ticks, snakes, or poison ivy. But parents in Lakeside, California, along the San Diego River have something else to worry about — transients. (Or “homeless” for you non-PC types.)

A 9-year-old boy was lured to the riverbank by a transient. Adults at a softball game nearby intervened and called sheriff’s deputies. When the man was arrested, they discovered he was a registered sex offender.

“I hate to think what would have happened if we weren’t watching him and the boy had actually gone down there,” said Sam Smith, president of the Lakeside Girls Fastpitch Softball league.

Because of the incident, the county has given a higher priority to protecting children from transients at the 60-acre park on Ashwood Street, near El Capitan High School.

In a world in which bad news dominates, it’s so nice to hear about an out-pouring of support and help for a mother down on her luck (not only is she down on her luck, she also just gave birth to triplets!).

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — Offers of help are pouring in for a homeless Michigan woman who recently gave birth to triplets.

“We have received hundreds of calls,” said Janie Bergeron, who directs Green Gables Haven, a Barry County shelter where Monica Roberts, her babies and her mother are staying.

Bergeron’s staff is working overtime this week to return telephone messages.

“There are literally hundreds of people we’re trying to call back,” she told The Grand Rapids Press for a story published Tuesday.

Invitations to take in the 33-year-old mother and her babies have been proffered by people in Holland, Kalamazoo, Lansing and beyond.