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The Vindicator and Tribune Chronicle have received several emails since the newspapers published an Oct. 10 article about a homeless woman living outdoors in the Youngstown-Warren area.
The story related how the woman sleeps outside and moves around, visiting businesses at times, trying to keep a low profile to reduce the potential of becoming a victim.
She described some of the challenges she faces as a "woman out here alone" and some of the heartwarming things people have done for her.
Other details had to be left out of the story to avoid endangering her further, like where she was sleeping and what she looks like. She said she had not been homeless long and felt that because she did not have a serious mental illness or a substance abuse problem, she was refused help at area homeless facilities.
One email to the newspapers contained what appears to be an amazing offer from the manager of a Youngstown-area business -- a "clean apartment on the property that she can use, rent and utility free for as long as she needs."
The manager said the owners of the company have a heart for people struggling in life and allowed a family that lost their home to a fire to use the apartment previously. He said the family has since bought a home.
A reporter also contacted the Rescue Mission of the Mahoning Valley about the woman to see if the woman's perception of the rules for accepting homeless people were accurate and was told the facility on that very day had openings for four single women. The openings are on a first-com-first-served basis, so responding right away was prudent, the reporter was told.
But efforts to contact the homeless woman in the days to come were not successful. With the help of a man and his wife who had befriended the woman, repeated attempts were made to find her and also to leave messages for her at the businesses she frequented. But it appeared the woman did not try to check out that opportunity.
At one point, the woman said the local police had ordered her to vacate her nighttime sleeping space, but the police department reported it had no record of any police contact with her, though the department's spokesman was off work and would not return right away to be asked to look into it.
In the days before trying to contact the homeless woman about the apartment, an employee of a Youngstown-Warren agency had offered a great deal of enthusiasm that she could find the homeless woman a place to stay. But no connection apparently took place with that agency either.
The offer of a free apartment was received on Monday. Right away, a reporter and the couple that had befriended her weeks earlier tried to locate her again to relay that information. The reporter and the couple found out separately the homeless woman had been visiting a specific business every day for a while not far from where she had been sleeping.
The reporter and the couple left messages at the business Wednesday for the homeless woman to contact us or contact the manager of the business with the apartment. But there was no indication she had done that.
On Thursday morning, the reporter and the couple met up at the business where she had been going daily. An employee said the homeless woman did not show up that day.
It seemed likely that the woman did not want to be contacted.
It was frustrating to try so many times to provide the woman with a roof over her head but get no response from her. The couple went looking for the woman several times without luck.
Other people have contacted the newspaper wondering if there is any way they can help the woman. One suggested that someone contact the St. Vincent de Paul Society in Warren. Another person suggested creating a GoFundMe account.
Another person emailed just asking if additional information could be provided about the woman because the story left so many questions.
"I am interested in learning what happened to make her homeless. Did she lose her job? Was she sick and her medical bills were too much? What happened?"
The writer wanted to know if the homeless woman has a post office box or bank account. The homeless woman told the reporter the last time they talked that she had trouble trying to get a post office box because they wanted her to provide forms of documentation that she could not provide.
"It seems there is more to this story. It's almost as if she is doing research for a book or article that she wants to write about the homeless," the woman writing the email suggested.
"So, many unanswered questions. I do hope you'll do a follow-up on her. It would be nice to learn that she was able to get that apartment and car that she has been wanting," the writer said.
So far, sadly, no happy ending has yet occurred.