When I lived in London I used to feel terrible about not giving anything to all the homeless people I saw but then, there were usually about 20 on my way to work and when you’re living on £2 a day, you can’t even give them all 10p. That’s when you find yourself smiling tersely and hurrying by, or at least, that’s when I did. It sucked, so I decided that if I couldn’t give them money I’d have to give them something else and as all I had was my time and my attention they had to settle for that! I developed a pattern of stopping and chatting to a couple of them each day so everyone got a chat and 20p once a week or so.

So if anyone reading this is that skint, too, I can thoroughly recommend the conversational route! They have amazing stories to tell, a lot of them are amazing people and I am sure having one of the commuters stopping and treating them like a human being is better than a terse, embarrassed nod – even if you have nothing else to share with them.

Top work.

Cheers

BC

I plead with those out there who may be reading this. If you have blankets and towels that aren’t good enough for donating to a thrift store, by all means step outside and leave them for a homeless person. There are indirect ways to deposit these items on the streets without causing offense to the recipients.

Give your sturdy clothing not to the local thrift shop, but to your local shelter. Ladies, make sure to donate your nicest business suits to your local Dress for Success (http://www.dressforsuccess.org/) charity. Gentlemen, make sure to donate your nicest business suit to a prison reform charity. You’d be surprised how many young men step outside of prison each day and need clothing for employment. If none of these organizations are near you, give the items instead to a shelter.

Lobby to create pet friendly shelters. For many of our homeless population, their animals are their only family and what keeps them sane during those lonely times. And the ban on animals in shelters prevents many from taking shelter during below freezing nights (I’ve blogged about this: http://gramercyriff.blogspot.com/2007/02/mans-best-friend.html) Many cities changed the laws to allow exceptions for emergencies because of what happened during Hurricane Katrina. Why can’t we extend this to others in difficult non emergency situations.

The shelter I volunteer at is private. We are always in constant need of volunteers. If you can sacrifice one weekend night every few months, you will do a whole world of good. Many people bolt once they find out they have to spend the night near a homeless person. I have met so many people and have learned that we are all one step away from the streets.

Any time you stay at a hotel, take the toiletries from the room and save them up. You paid for the room, they are yours. Take them. Pass these onto someone who really has a need for them. If you can afford a hotel, you can afford to relinquish a few shampoos.

There’s nothing wrong about stepping up the charity during the holiday season, but let’s not make helping the homeless a holiday thought. There are so many little things we can do without feeling overwhelmed. Let’s start now and continue to work to keep the problems and concerns that many face in our eyesight all throughout the year.

Homelessness doesn’t end when Christmas does.

I did that two years ago, and it was so rewarding and emotional. My friend and I fixed up some meals and made up care packages full of all the essentials and some goodies like toothbrush, toothpaste, comb, etc, clothes, socks, then we took to the streets and shelters in Toronto. We had some great conversations and just learned so much.

One instance that particularly sticks out in my mind was being in front of the eaton’s centre (this large mall in downtown toronto) and there was a magician there performing tricks and a huge crowd of people around him, throwing money and laughing, etc. Behind him hunched in the corner was a homeless man trying to panhandle for change. We went over to him with our rolling suitcases, sat down and began to chat over some cookies and sorting through clothes. Then someone in the crowd noticed us and came over, asked us if we were with an organization, etc (they couldn’t believe we were doing it out of our own will!)

Anyway, slowly, people from the crowd began to notice and more and more people came over to talk to use and give the man change… suddenly we saw the dynamics change. Now there was a crowd around the homeless man, people talking and giving change. It was such a miracle.

Good luck!