Hamilton County and the city of Cincinnati were already committed to tackling the complicated issue of homelessness, but things shifted into high gear around the time a 48-year-old homeless woman named Joann Burton was run over by a Cincinnati Police Department squad car in Washington Park.

Burton was asleep under a blanket in July 2010 and died from injuries suffered when a car driven by officer Marty Polk rolled into the park and over her. That was a low point in Cincinnati's relationship with its homeless -- until the other night, some would say when police found 55-year-old Kenneth Martin dead on Government Square.

Quickly on social media, some rushed to politicize Martin's death or essentially blame the city for callousness and for not providing enough beds for the homelessness in our community. To be sure, it is a travesty anytime a homeless person dies outside, and it is more than appropriate that we mourn Martin's life. But to me, the rush to judgment seems premature.

The Hamilton County Coroner's office said it could be up to 14 weeks before we know how Martin died. This much we do know: The chances of a homeless person in Cincinnati getting help in 2017 are better than they were when Burton died in Washington Park, and particularly when the weather becomes dangerously cold -- as it is now.



Seven years ago, there were 650 emergency shelter beds available 365 days a year, which was not nearly enough during the coldest parts of winter. Today, there are 800, including the 200 beds that have been added in cold-weather shelters.

Overall, there are 18 homeless shelters and in Hamilton County and Northern Kentucky. Two drop-in homeless shelters, both open 24 hours a day, are open in Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky. There is better programming, too, including counseling, addiction services, and job training.

Between 2010 and 2015, five new shelters were built in Hamilton County with $42 million in funds from the city, county and money from foundations in Cincinnati.

On the night Martin died, more than 100 shelter beds were setting empty less than one mile away from Government Square at Barron Center for Men Shelter in Queensgate. The center asks no questions of those seeking shelter from the cold.

Outreach workers shift from helping the homeless finding transitional housing in warm weather to telling them where to seek emergency shelter when winter temperatures become too dangerous to be outside.

"The big question about Mr. Martin is, 'Did he know that a mile from where he was sitting there was a shelter option that was available to him and if he did know, why did he decide to stay outside instead?' " Kevin Finn, executive director of Cincinnati-based Strategies to End Homelessness, told me. Finn noted that the shelter is on a bus line, and wondered if Downtown Cincinnati Inc., Ambassadors or police interacted with Martin. CPD officers regularly transport homeless people to the winter shelter, Finn said.

"It clearly was not a facility that is missing. There clearly was a place where he could have gone and didn’t," Finn said.

Finn's organization works with 30 non-profit agencies, including Tender Mercies, the YWCA, Talbert House, Goodwill, and others to coordinate a centralized emergency shelter hotline, homelessness prevention and street outreach. The organization is one of seven in the country to be named by the Housing and Urban Development as a Unified Funding Agency, which recognizes our community's strength as a homeless services system.

While Cincinnati has done a better job than most cities for effectively addressing homelessness, we won't always get it right. The housed and those with means suffer from mental illness, drug addiction, unemployment and other indignities.

Imagine adding the uncertainty of not having a place of your own to lie your head every night?

Today, it's hard to fathom a police officer driving into a park and running over a sleeping homeless person. That's a positive mind shift and affirmation of how far we have come in our community.

Meanwhile, Martin will never be able to tell us why he died where he lay. What is most important is that we continue to face the complex challenges of homelessness as best we can through coordination of care.

And as the days become colder, we must see to it that any other potential Kenneth Martin gets shelter from the cold -- or perhaps effective help with his demons -- in time.

Enquirer Columnist Byron McCauley is also a member of the editorial board. Call him at (513) 768-8565. Connect with him on Twitter: @byronmccauley. He writes about people and places behind the news and other things that strike his fancy.