Myles Turner does not want this column to be about him. Dan Rohme, the man who handles communications for Turner’s agency group, does not want this column to be about Myles Turner. So, this column will be largely about the scourge of homelessness in Indianapolis and throughout this country, an issue that Turner has made his own through his many good works throughout his young life.

So here we were at a south side Kroger last week, and there was Turner, his parents (Mary and David) and several Pacers’ employees, raising funds and consciousness for his WARM (We All Really Matter) initiative. WARM is a simple, beautiful concept, one that began growing organically when Turner was six years old, and his mother, Mary, stopped to provide a homeless man with goods she routinely carried in her car.

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“I can remember, the time that really got to Myles, we were in the car and we saw a young man who was using socks to warm his hands and his feet,’’ Mary Turner said. “He said, `Aw, Mom, that’s so awful.’ So we started looking in the car, we had some jackets that he’d outgrown that we were taking to Goodwill, and we gave it to this person. Then Myles had a backpack with him that had some socks and he gave them to the man. The guy was so appreciative and that really sparked something in Myles.’’

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On this day, the line in Kroger wrapped all the way around the produce section, the 135 “go’’ bags gone well before three-quarters of the people were accommodated. Fans could donate $5 to WARM and receive a bag, which they will give to homeless people they encounter around town, plus a signed picture from Turner and other Pacers-related items.

But here was the best part: Right beside Turner, his mother stood and helped in any way she could. His father, David, sat nearby and beamed as he watched his wife and oldest son do their good works. This is a family undertaking – from the heart.

“I’ve seen this coming in Myles for a long time,’’ David said with a smile.

And why wouldn’t he be wildly proud? We’re talking about a 19-year-old here; at 19, everything is about you, about friends and cars and finding the next good time. But Turner, inspired by his parents, has worked to help the homeless since he was very young, and remains committed to a cause that has grown and grown from a single-family enterprise into one that has become a community-wide effort.

“That kid was raised right, I’m telling you,’’ said Pacers teammate and Turner’s best friend on the team, Joe Young. “He’s just so mature. I mean, I went to college for four years and he went for just one, and he knows about things I don’t know anything about. He’s a smart guy.’’

He’s also a giving guy, and I apologize to Turner and Rohme for (sort of) making this column about the Pacers’ breakout rookie. (But hey, how do you avoid it, right?)

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As a kid, he would watch as his parents would come upon a homeless person and provide him or her with one of Mary’s “go’’ bags. It might have food. It might have one of the clothing items that Turner outgrew so quickly. It might be a couple of bucks. Anything to help.

Then, during his one year at the University of Texas, he couldn’t help but notice the number of homeless people throughout Austin. So, he would stop and approach them. He was still a relatively poor college student – aren’t most college students relatively poor? – but he’d give them a couple of bucks and whatever he might have to offer.

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Fast forward to Indianapolis, and now Turner is using his new-found wealth to do what his parents did, and continue to do: He routinely fills up his car with necessities that might help a homeless person and moves around the city, looking for those in need. Many, he said, live under bridges, including the bridge just outside the employees’ entrance on Delaware Street. Or he’d go by Monument Circle, where he would often find those in need. Often, he took a friend with him; it’s not the safest enterprise, rolling around and working with those who may be in the throes of addiction or mental illness. But without telling anybody, without even mentioning it to the Pacers, he would make his rounds when he could find the time. He didn’t want the publicity. He just wanted to do right.

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In fact, when I asked if I could tag along on a night when he did his good works, he politely declined.

Even with the slow, but steady improvement in the U.S. economy, homelessness nationally and locally remains a terrible problem. The federal government has its numbers, but according to Alan Witchey, the executive director of CHIP — the Coalition for Homeless, Intervention and Protection here in Indianapolis — the federal government defines homeless people in such a way that it artificially diminishes the number of the suffering. For example, if a homeless person is in drug or alcohol treatment, or in jail, or temporarily doubled up in a hotel, or in the hospital receiving treatment for an ailment, he or she is not counted by the federal government as homeless.

“There’s some kind of desire on the part of the federal government to define our way out of this,’’ Witchey said. “It’s not helpful at all on a local level because if gives the impressions things are going much better than they really are.’’

According to CHIP’s data, there are 8-9,000 homeless in Indianapolis, and that number has remained static since 2012. During last year’s point-in-time data gathering mission – that’s counting the homeless on a single, given night – there were 1,666 homeless people on the streets of Indianapolis. The first week of January, four homeless people died in the cold while living on the streets of Indy. The second week of the month, another homeless person perished.

There are any number of compelling reasons why a person might be relegated to homelessness: Many have lost jobs and simply can’t pay the rent or other bills and have been evicted. A frightening percentage are veterans, many of whom suffer from PTSD. There are many who are fleeing a domestic abuse situation. There are many with alcohol and/or drug abuse issues. Mental health, specifically bipolar disorder, schizophrenia or other maladies, have taken people to the streets. And there are so many families, an under-reported number of families, who can’t make ends meet and have ended up in shelters or forced to live and sleep on the streets.

“We get federal funding from HUD (Housing and Urban Development), about $5 million, which helps, but the city of Indianapolis really hasn’t been addressing this issue by allocating dollars through the city budget or tax dollars,’’ Witchey said. “The last time we looked, we were outside of the top 15 cities, the only one not contributing budget money to homelessness. Now that’s going to start to change – we’re going to open a new center in collaboration with the city – but it’s not nearly enough.

“It’s hard to know why. It has to be a community priority to recognize that ending homelessness is a critical piece and failing to do so only causes other problems. It’s crazy, the money we spend putting the homeless in jail or through the court system or in hospitals is enormous annually and we know if we invest in other programs, like providing permanent housing, it would cost a lot less as a community. Yet we have really struggled in Indianapolis.’’

In Witchey’s view, providing permanent housing is the key. According to his data, 92 percent of homeless people who got permanent housing were still housed a year later. The problem is, there’s not enough permanent housing. Currently, there are 270 people on a list for permanent housing. On average, it takes nine months to get off that list.

It is a massive problem, but Turner is trying to make a small dent in it any way he and his family can. This particular event at Kroger? It stemmed from the fact that Turner was becoming frustrated that his heavy travel and basketball schedule was not allowing him to get out with the kind of frequency he wanted. So why not give these “go’’ bags to good-hearted people in the community and turn them into a small army of giving souls who could address the homeless issue in their own way?

This is a small enterprise now. It won’t, and shouldn’t, remain that way.

“You know who’s idea this (Kroger event) was?’’ Rohme asked, standing nearby as fans took pictures with the smiling rookie. “It was Myles. All Myles.’’

It’s a small and lovely gesture, and it’s one an entire city can get behind. But it’s just a drop in the bucket: The issue of homelessness cannot be fixed by a couple hundred “go’’ bags, and the Turners know that all too well. It’s got to be a civic priority, a governmental priority, or thousands will continue to go hungry, or live on the streets, or suffer with mental illness or addiction, or even die.

READ MORE BY BOB KRAVITZ.

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Learn more about Turner's program here.