I came across a bit snarky. My apologies. In my area of the country there are not a whole lot of resources like that. If homeless, often times one is just SOL. Thanks to you and the above posters for their efforts.
ETA: Interview clothes versus winter survival clothes. Both are needed, but when the tourists leave, everything shuts down here. Even employment opportunities.
Then survival becomes paramount. It is a long hike to a bigger city just to be homeless in a concrete jungle and strange surroundings.
I work for a non-profit and have started to donate winter clothing - sleeping bags, comforters, hats and gloves, winter coats, thick socks, winter boots, the random tent that may come our way, etc.
The winter can be brutal here and being through it twice while homeless, I will make sure I will do what I can that nobody dies from exposure. I almost did. Spent 3 days in ER. Thank goodness someone came through waist-high snowbanks to check on me as I was about to be a frozen corpse.
There are a couple of food banks here. One requires ID ans SS#. The other one doesn’t. The problem is one can only visit every 60 days, so when one runs out of food…:eek:
Hell if I know. My younger brother is bipolar (probably, but has never been officially diagnosed as such, but has some sort of mental illness), and refuses treatment. He’s been homeless for 10 years now, or so.
I tried everything I could, and it never worked. I finally had to cut off contact because of his hurtful outbursts.
He seems to get food from soup kitchens, but not winter coats and boots, which could not be pleasant in Salt Lake during the winter. My mother gives him money so I think he uses that.
I’m not sure if I would bring just any homeless person back to my house for work. Looking at my younger brother, that would be so fraught with danger. While he’s never physically hurt anyone seriously (yet), if things got worse, I could see that happening. He’s stalked ex-girlfriends and get obsessed with other people.
Brian David Mitchell, the man who kidnapped Elizabeth Smart, had been hired as a homeless man by Elizabeth’s father for a day labor type job.
While the actual odds of something bad happening are probably less than getting into a car accident, I think prudence is wise until you have a chance to know the person better.
Absolutely- the issues facing the homeless there, with brutal winters are far different than in San Jose, where I worked.
I often tell/offer advice? about being homeless. Beg me some forgiveness for being there.
True, there are the addicts, the mentally challenged, those in denial, et al.
But many are versions of circumstances beyond their control.
When this subject comes up in polite conversation, usually ones with wealthy assets and no worries.
I ask them:
“Tonight, when you leave here, you have no where to go. Your bank card doesn’t work. Your supposed friends no longer exist. Your freaking smartphone does not even work. No family or friends to put you up for a night or two. It’s 2AM and you face a day on the streets (or forest). What would you do?”
I get mostly blank stares.
I like this answer a lot ! I was going to buy a homeless man a sub and went to a sub shop and asked to owner to throw together a sub for a homeless man . The owner told me that he gave the guy a sub and he threw it away. The homeless guy only wanted cash to buy liquor . A policeman told me he would not give homeless men any money b/c they most likely get drunk with it.
I don’t trust the ‘existing organizations’. A few years ago, one of the locals, with a big name got in the news. The organization sold a jillion dollar house to the president/manager of that organization for something like $8.
I can do better for the poor by giving them money for drugs.
Cite?
Honestly for a long time alcoholic your money might be keeping them alive, after a certain level of alcoholism you can die from seizures.
(Around me the choice drinks homeless drunks buy are bay rum(intended to be used as after shave) or isopropyl alcohol, I can’t believe anyone would drink those by choice so If they are that desperate get drunk with it I say)
I used to feel pretty bad for homeless people and would give money and food fairly often. Once I even drove a homeless guy that I didn’t know at all to a grocery store and bought him a whole weeks worth of food and then drove him back to where I found him. I’ve sat and chatted with some, one year when I was in the Army and got my bonus I gave these two homeless guys like $60 cause I had thousands in the bank.
But now that I’ve got my kids my money is tighter and I feel like if I give any of them money I’m taking food out of my own children’s mouths. I’ve also had experiences like an old homeless woman asking me for money to buy food and when I offered to buy her some food from the gas station nearby she just said “Forget it!” and walked away, I guess she wasn’t really that hungry after all.
Probably the best thing you can do is volunteer your time or money for a professional organization that handles these things, unfortunately I don’t have either one to offer at the moment. The most I can do right now is some loose change in the ashtray of my car.
I’ve taken a homeless kid into my house for a couple of months several years ago.
I have friend of a friend, that volunteers with the homeless a few nights a month. He usually takes a couple of cases of beer down to the overpasses in the downtown area and shares it around. Sits and drinks with them and then usually ends up sleeping there with one or two of them to help them keep warm through the night. I don’t understand but he apparently gets something from it.
I work for an organization that helps people get off public aid and one of the things I see that people desperately need is access to dental care.
Take that money and use it to get on your representative’s butt to fund dental care and make it part of Obamacare.
One of the biggest setbacks we have is people with missing teeth, bad teeth and this does in fact, hold them back from getting work.
Even the charity work done by the dentists we can find, they don’t seem to get this. I’ve had dentists insist on working for free on a root canal for a molar instead of a fake front tooth. I’m like “Yes, they need that molar fixed eventually but they really need to get a tooth put in so they can get a job FIRST.”
This said, you have to remember homelessness is not about “not having a place to live,” it’s about being in a situation in life, where you have no one to help you out.
There are a lot of reasons for this, and frankly more often than not, the people I deal with are there of their own poor choices, but simply housing them wouldn’t help, because all they’d do is make the same poor choice and be right back where they started from.
This is what I’ve done, although it turned out to be closer to a $30 backpack. I got two backpacks at Goodwill. Goodwill has a frequent buyer program so I got 10% off! I’d have gotten more if senior/military discount applied. And I’ll get 25% off my next purchase - sweet! I got supplies for 4 backpacks, so I’ll get 2 more backpacks soon. I got 1 package of hypoallergenic baby wipes from WalMart for each backpack. I got a bunch of grooming and other supplies at the dollar store: zip lip bags, trash bags (for shelter, etc - great survival trick), toothbrushes, toothbrush covers, toothpaste, dental floss, hairbrush, combs, sunscreen, lip balm, soap, deodorant, a cheap microfiber file, a car “chamois” towel, razors, hair elastics, LED flashlight with batteries and spare batteries, pencils, sharpener, spiral notebook, small carabiners, duct tape, binder clips. I threw in 2 mylar emergency blankets each, which I had on hand. And one glow stick each (also from my camping supplies). I’ll add a short note along the lines of “people are thinking of you”.
Per the online advice I read I did not get hand sanitizer or mouthwash. People with addiction issues might abuse these and really hurt themselves.
If I were to keep going I’d get a tube tent for each pack, and some petroleum jelly, and a first aid kit, and … and I’d never finish. Maybe in the winter I’ll do another set of backpacks with warm clothes and such. I’d have gotten petroleum jelly at the dollar store, but they only had the kind with cocoa butter. I’d been advised by a friend that I should donate items with as little added stuff, and as neutral scents, as possible.
I’ll pick up a few cheap fast food gift cards to have on hand for any homeless people I encounter when I’m out of my car. But in a day or two at least one homeless person on my commute to work will have some supplies. It’s not enough, but it’s a start.
In Chicago we have StreetWise.
One thing that is often forgotten – if your homeless person is a woman / girl between the ages of… say 12 and 55, it’s really hard to get your hands on tampons and pads. But Aunt Flo will be visiting every month whether they have supplies or not. A gift of sanitary supplies would totally make that woman’s day.
Lately, i have been seeing well-dressed people at road intersections, begging. They appear clean and educated, usually they have signs proclaiming that they are homeless, disabled, etc. “Please Help” is a common feature. My question: how do you tell if these people are geniun, or just making a few extra SS this way?
I’d say most are scams.
Update: I went to a McDonald’s and bought a stack of $5 gift cards. My plan is to have a few in my wallet to give out to homeless folks I encounter. Right outside of the McD’s was a homeless man begging for change. I gave him a card. He was very thankful! And I felt amazing. (There’s a song from Avenue Q about this.) I bought a hungry man a meal today. I can do this much.
Even better: I posted that on Facebook, and dozens of my friends liked or commented on it. I feel like I’ve launched a helpful idea. 
And I’ll start distributing the backpacks next week.
Yes, he can sell that card for $4 of booze or drugs!
Dont give cash. Or easily convertible to cash. Socks are good.
Socks are good, yeah. Another possible backpack idea is a rain poncho.