Comments on: 2009 Homeless Gift Guide

By: Pastor Gary

Pastor Gary — Thu, 20 Nov 2014 19:39:58 +0000

I just read your very nice article. What you have written is all true. Homeless people are looked down upon as evils in the communities. One mayor said if we feed them it is not helping to get rid of them. Like if you do not feed roaches they will leave. But the homeless are not roaches. They are souls with heart and soul who have feelings of hurt, loneliness, and torment (because of addictions). In sharing our goodness it is good to give to the homeless just as you described. Thanks for an excellent article. Now if only more people had heart to share as you described. Thanksgiving 2014 is now approaching. What better way to show our thanks for what God has given to us than to share with those for whom nothing has been prepared.

By: Susan Warthman

Susan Warthman — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 18:06:18 +0000

I wish I read this before Christmas instead of after. My biggest fear is homelessness, not death. Yet, I often walk by people with blinders on my eyes. I am often struggling with bills, but feel I should try alittle of your gift giving ideas while it is snowing and we are in the middle of winter. It is never too late. Thanks for such a thought provoking article and for such very practical and safe recommendations.

By: Jan Garvin

Jan Garvin — Thu, 24 Dec 2009 17:46:26 +0000

Two points. About ten years ago, I was president of an organization of parents of children with mental and behavioral health problems/ Our children’s difficulties meant that many of us lived on the financial brink ourselves–we made jokes about the potato diet, the macaroni diet and the rice diets we subsisted on, but we all had shelter. We went to the post office and collected undeliverable magazines and merchandise. We gave books and magazines to the Mental Health Hospitals and Clinics, and we filled fifty speckleware cups with small toiletries, candies and a pair of socks, tied them in colored plastic wrap with a bow and had them passed out by the mental health workers who are charged with assisting the homeless by seeing to their medical needs and trying to get them to go into shelters during inclement weather. It was a very small gesture but perhaps it meant the world to someone. If I’d been out on those streets, it would have meant a lot to me.
On a larger scale, it’s decidedly odd that our cities have two serious problems, with one being an obvious solution to the other. The first is homelessness. Every city, even small ones of 20k residents have some, and large cities have many. Every city also has homes and other buildings that are vacant due to the spate of foreclosures. Many of the homeless are not really penniless. They have SSI payments of around $650 per month. In too many cities, purchasing even minimal shelter would absorb all of that income, so people live on the street instead. If we could use some of the federal stimulous money coming into cities to purchase vacant properties, then we should create local organizations on the model of Habitat for Humanity, where volunteers do any necessary work, while the people who will be getting housing work along side them, learning the skills necessary to maintain homes once they receive them. Habitat houses are not gifts. The labor for building is supplied by the potential recipients and by volunteers. The people who receive them invest sweat equity in the form of labor into their own or someone else’s home, then pay a monthly mortgage sufficient to cover the cost of the materials for their home. The mortgage payments go into a fund for purchasing additional properties and building additional houses.

By: steve

steve — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 22:06:41 +0000

Im still not sure what I can be doing to tackle the under lying causes of homelessness: If you have any ideas can you pop them up on the bottom of my blog! http://stevehynd.wordpress.com/2009/12/22/the-spanish-the-homeless-and-christmas-%e2%80%93-some-reflections/