Getting Up Close to Homelessness

Homelessness evokes such a myriad of feelings - guilt mixed in with compassion with perhaps a touch of disdain.
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Did you know the average age of a homeless individual in the US is nine years old and that families are the fastest growing segment of homelessness?

If you are like many people, it's often easier to write a check to donate money to a homeless shelter than to make eye contact with the person on the street begging for food or money. Why is that? Homelessness evokes such a myriad of feelings - guilt mixed in with compassion with perhaps a touch of disdain - it's confusing, and so, many of us deal with it by ignoring the issue. We walk by those on the streets, and roll up our windows when someone approaches our cars by the freeway onramps. Maybe we're scared for our safety, maybe we're scared of what we'll see. But the really scary part is that the people that we see on the streets might be a lot better off than the ones we don't see.

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One grass-roots organization that I've had the pleasure to work with is The Giving Spirit. The Giving Spirit prepares survival kits for the homeless and distributes them on the streets. Our volunteers take to the roads and wander through parks, down alleys, onto Skid Row, under the freeways. We find those people who are unable to travel to shelters, too scared or too proud to beg on street corners, and we give them sustenance to help them survive the streets. We try to find those who have been forgotten, and we sit and talk with them. For many, ours is the only social interaction they may have had all year. Can you imagine having people walk by you all year and NO ONE stops to talk to you? Or living with all of your worldly belongings in a shopping cart, only to have them stolen when you tried to get food at a shelter? The Giving Spirit is giving volunteers the opportunity to make a difference in the lives of these individuals and to reach out to those in need.

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What's in the bag? Besides over 70 essentials such as food, toiletries, blankets, first aid, eating utensils and clothing, we include little goodies such as homemade cards made by schoolchildren. Amazingly, we've met so many people who have broken down and cried when they looked through their duffle bags. Although they were cold and hungry, the thing they loved the most was the card. "Do you know it's been years since anyone has written to me?" Can you imagine being forgotten by everyone in the world?

Our volunteers arguably get even more out of these interactions than our homeless friends do. They get a powerful and firsthand look at homelessness. They get to touch people's lives in a very personal way. They get to spread hope. And they get to go home afterwards and count their blessings. For the 80,000 people who call the streets of Los Angeles home every night, however, we hope we can at least leave them with a survival kit and the knowledge that we thought them important enough to find.
Families are the fastest growing segment of the homeless population. But families, especially those headed by single mothers, are loathe to wander the streets. And so we go to find them.

Here's a quick snapshot of the homeless population in Los Angeles County, which is by far the largest in the country with more than the next 3 cities combined:

•Over 250,000 people are homeless each year, and 80,000 are homeless every night in Los Angeles County. There are only 18,000 shelter beds available.
•Families, typically headed by single mothers, represent 20%-40% of the homeless population each night. With the average homeless family having 2 children, that could be over 10,000 kids on the streets EACH NIGHT.
•One-third to one-half of the homeless people are women and girls.
•Over 40% of homeless adults worked in the year prior to becoming homeless. Over half have graduated high school and 10% have graduated college.

As we enter this holiday season, I urge you to think about ways you can give a little more. Reach out of your comfort zone. Donate your time, not just your money. If you would like to get involved with The Giving Spirit, please visit our website to donate or to volunteer at our next event in Los Angeles on December 13-15. You can also support The Giving Spirit by downloading and using their Yahoo! toolbar at Give2Network.com.

3 Easy Ways to Give

1. Stop and say hello. Many people just want someone to talk to.
2. Pack up your restaurant leftovers and give it to someone on the street.
3. Donate directly to homeless shelters, where the items will go directly to people in need rather than to a thrift shop. Give clothing, those extra little bottles of hotel toiletries, blankets, umbrellas, etc. Think about who could really use what you have to give and make it happen!

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