United Homeless Organization (NYC) = Scam?

Factual Questions
1

Last week, after I dropped a few coins into the large plastic jug the UHO folks use to collect donations on Manhattan street corners, a bystander walked after me, telling me that the United Homeless Organization is just a big scam–the “workers” pay the organization a $58 daily fee in exchange for the table and jug, and they are allowed to keep all of the “donations” for themselves.

I didn’t care all that deeply–after all, I still occasionally toss change to individual homeless people or street musicians, and I didn’t see this as being that different–but my curiosity was piqued. A Yahoo search only turned up one thing–a defunct NYPost article.

Anyone heard anything else about this charity, and how respectable they are?

Here’s their web site:

http://www.unitedhomelessorganization.com

2

The “workers” are the homeless people themselves. They are organized, they have, I believe, a Board of Directors, and they apply for funding and distribute food and blankets and whatnot amongst homeless street people, but unless they’ve changed their bylaws and tactics, you can’t be an actual member unless you are or were homeless yourself. So yes, some of the people with the tables and jugs are directly benefitting from the money you put in their jug, because they themselves are among the homeless people that your money is going to help. And yes, I suppose you could say some cynical things about an organization that helps homeless people by putting them at a table to collect money in a jug and then coming by later to take part of it for the organization – except that it’s different when the people coming by to take the organization’s “cut” are homeless or recently homeless themselves.

Do any of the no-longer-homeless ones skim off money as a “salary”? I don’t know. It’s possible, although I’ve also seen them distributing sandwiches to homeless people. And I hear rumors that the Red Cross and the United Way pay some of their administrators out of “charitable donations” too.

3

Ah yes, the folks who bellow “HELP FEED THE HOMELESS” for hours on end. I’ve nothing product to add - my problem with them is that they never answer my question:

Who are they feeding them to?

4

Personally, I’ve always thought this organization was suspect because their “representatives” continually violate the laws against panhandling on the NYC subway. I don’t have any other reasons to be suspicious, though.

5

I am hugely skeptical of “I’m Charles Henderson . . . ,” who haunts the PATH trains every goddam day with his UHO spiel. For one thing, he always asks people to come help out at “the shelter,” but never gives an address. And every week or two, he gives us the same "some of you left your wallets and wedding rings at the shelter last night . . . " story, which always makes one of my eyebrows elevate.

On a side note, I had one of those awful “did I only think that, or say it out loud?” moments when passing a UHO table. The spieler was yelling, “your spare change can buy someone a hot meal tonight!” and I said (or thought), “Yeah—me!”

6

here is googles cache of the NY post article http://www.google.com/search?q=cache:HjqRbNam7D4C:www.nypost.com/news/regionalnews/36970.htm+"United+Homeless+Organization"&hl=en&ie=ISO-8859-1

I think there is better ways of giving money, especially as half the people working on the tables apparently aren’t homeless.

7

The link ain’t workin’ so well, scm.

8

sorry, I think posting google cahces may not work very well. Here is a copy of the article
"December 18, 2001 – EXCLUSIVE
Generous New Yorkers who toss spare change into plastic jugs set out by the United Homeless Organization are doing little more than supporting organized panhandling, The Post has learned.

Despite claims that the money donated at UHO tables throughout Manhattan pays for programs for the homeless, at least 80 percent of the cash is pocketed by the men and women doing the fund-raising.

The Bronx-based charity charges $15 for a five-hour shift at a table. All the rest of the money is kept by the fund-raiser, who is outfitted with the table, laminated literature, a water jug, and an ID card.

Last year, UHO’s cut of the action amounted to $38,091 - a fraction of what people donated, according to the organization’s federal tax forms obtained by The Post.

And of that money, virtually every penny went to pay for office supplies, cars, insurance, stipends, dues and accounting fees - even $805 for travel, the tax forms show.

UHO officials defended their charity, saying that all of the tables are run by the homeless themselves.

“The people working for us are strictly homeless people. This is a way to motivate them,” said Frank Dobkin, UHO’s vice president. “They’re out there for themselves.”

“If you give them a dollar, 80 percent goes to him and 20 cents goes to me,” said Dobkin, adding that the organization hopes to save up enough money to buy a house to use as a shelter.

But half of the dozen UHO fund-raisers approached by The Post recently said they weren’t homeless - though most would not give their names. The ones who did, said they were living on the streets.

“We feed and house the homeless,” insisted Osbie Wiley, who said he’s an official with UHO and also works at a table in Midtown, where he claims to earn an average of $40 a day.

Wiley said the organization’s claim to be helping the homeless is valid since he’s homeless and the money helps him. “I’m 46 and I sleep on the streets of America,” he said. "