What They Say

[talon]

http://www.cnn.com/2011/LIVING/03/11/good.giving.money.homeless.works/index.html?hpt=Sbin

I've always said we need to listen to the homeless and help them with the things they truly need.

Yes, I know providing soup kitchens, shelters, and free health clinics help keep them alive, but they do very little for getting the homeless off the streets and back into society.

I did Sandwich Saturdays here in town for a decade*, listening to the homeless, talking to them, and finding a way to give them what they said they needed. For some, it was simple: a good haircut, a decent fitting pair of shoes, a professional looking briefcase, a meal in a nice sit down restaurant, a telephone, a P. O. Box. For others, it was much harder. They needed money to pay off loans that were keeping them on the street, or a good lawyer to help them with some legal issue that's keeping them on the street (usually needing to adjust child support to reflect their circumstances). Most wanted someone to walk them through and supervise them as they got back on their feet - a kind of Alcoholics Anonymous for the homeless.

And that, that is what I most wanted to give them and was least able to. I am bad with finances. I'm bad with money. I spend it as fast as I make it, giving it away to others who need it so much more than I do. I am terrible at budgeting, at saving, at doling out funds sparingly and only for essentials. Worse yet, I am a shopping enabler - I encourage others to spend their money. There's no way I could assume a budgeting counselor's role for others. A lifestyle coach, yes, getting employed and staying there, finding and making a home, setting up a home pantry, cooking skills, foraging skills - I'm there. But most of them wanted and needed financial guidance.

The homeless are all homeless for different reasons. They can't be treated in cookie cutter fashion. They need people to listen to them, to hear what they need, and to help them get that. They are individuals, each with a unique story. And they need personalized guidance and assistance, in addition to the soup kitchens, shelters, and free clinics.

*Now, I do impromptu lessons on urban foraging and guerilla gardening, with bottled water wrapped in packets of gift cards for haircuts, shoes, cellphones, and such.