MASON CITY – Is there a homeless problem in Mason City? Are the poor and poverty-stricken becoming more desperate?
For the second day in a row, Mason City police reported that they were called to deal with an assertive person asking for help.
On Thursday morning, police responded to the area of the Mohawk Square, 22 North Georgia Avenue, and the police headquarters across the street. According to police, “there was a male subject there who was being followed and harrassed by another male subject who was wanting money since he was homeless.”
Police did not elaborate on any interaction they may have had with the supposedly homeless individual.
On Wednesday, police were called to Mercy Hospital and the Mason City Fire Department to deal with a man asking for money and food. Both the hospital and the fire department wanted the man to leave.
Recently, NIT received a tip that a woman was living in a storage shed in town. Police could not confirm that tip. NIT is investigating.
Also recently observed were several instances of persons with signs asking for food or money on busy street corners. Last week, a man in tattered clothes, without a shirt on, sat on a park bench in Central Park as volunteers pulled weeds, edged sidewalks and planted flowers. The volunteers ignored the man, who eventually got up, put on a dirty shirt, and wandered away.
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