When people think of home, they often focus on what’s inside. But there’s a privilege in having a place to live that’s often forgotten: having a permanent address.
For people experiencing homelessness, an address can be a gateway to gaining that home. Without an address, an individual can’t receive disability benefits, social security payments or veteran’s benefits. They can’t open a bank account, which is often needed to collect earnings from employers. They can’t receive notifications about newly available affordable housing, messages from their children’s school or correspondence from family members.
In other words, the resources that homeless people need require an address, but in order to have an address — a home, apartment or place to sleep — the individual needs to first obtain those resources.
This vicious cycle has come to be known as the Postal Paradox — and leaders at Cathedral Basilica of St. Joseph in San Jose, California, saw an opportunity to disrupt it.
In 1983, the church opened up its reception office so that people experiencing homelessness could have a permanent address to receive mail and use when applying to jobs. Today, the program is called The Window.
“[The Window] is how we keep them connected,” Sharon Miller, the director of Cathedral Social Ministries at Catholic Charities, told NationSwell. “It’s just one small little layer of making a significant difference in someone’s life who doesn’t have a permanent residence.”
Throughout the day about 150 people, typically those recently released from the justice system or those experiencing homelessness, stop by the walk-up counter to collect any mail they might have received. Behind the glass panel is a tiny room with rows of mail slots, boxes of sandwiches and workers bustling around.
You’ll find people leaving The Window with bundles of mail. You’ll also find people walking away with a saran-wrapped sandwich or carrying a tube of toothpaste, a bottle of shampoo or a stick of deodorant.
“It’s just making sure that they have some real simple items, that are life-saving items,” Miller said.
Though it was initially conceived to serve as a permanent address, The Window has since evolved, offering toiletries, food and access to services to those who need it — services like referring individuals to shelters, permanent housing or employment opportunities. The Cathedral Office of Social Ministry also runs a free healthcare clinic, which is accessed through The WIndow.
“[The Window] really did grow over the years, and now we’re in a state of crisis with homelessness,” Miller explained.
Homelessness in San Jose is on the rise — up 42% since 2017. So a resource like The Window is essential to connecting individuals to permanent housing. And although San Jose’s homeless population has increased, Miller said registration rates at the Window are beginning to plateau.
Miller estimates that about 15 new people register with The Window every week and another 15 find permanent housing, so The Window’s total population has consistently hovered around 920.
Miller is constantly reminded of why she does this work. She’ll be flagged walking down the street by people she used to help. “Someone will come up and say, ‘Sharon, Sharon, I still have my housing because of what you provided.” And those are the memories that stick.
So even as homeless rates rise, Miller stays positive.
“All of us know what we need to do to solve this problem,” she said. “It just isn’t happening quick enough.”
It may seem like just a walk-up window, but inside are connections and opportunities for so much more.
More: These Parking Lots Give Homeless People a Safe Place to Sleep for the Night
Tag: Helping the Homeless
This Yellow Bus Isn’t Taking Children to School — It’s Taking Families Off of Streets
A school bus is typically full of eager, excited kids.
But for the Flood family, a school bus is home. It’s a place full of the essentials: food, hot water, clothes and a place to rest.
During the summer of 2018, David Flood, who was working as a substitute teacher and studying for his master’s, had to quit his job. He needed to take care of his three kids and his wife, Jennifer Flood, who was too sick to work. Rent payments, student loans and hospital bills piled up, and the family was evicted from their home. They were left with only their car and a tent to sleep in.
“We didn’t think it would happen to us—but it did,” David Flood told Julie Atkins, the founder of Vehicles for Changes. “It’s not just the uneducated. I’m finishing my master’s degree. I had nowhere to work, so the skoolie enables me to get it done. I’m so relieved.”
In November 2018, their precarious sleeping situation changed, thanks to Vehicles for Changes, a nonprofit that outfits retired school buses for families experiencing homelessness.
The family moved into a “skoolie,” a term for a bus converted into a home. After being cramped in their car, the family had a chance to stretch out for the first time in months.
Vehicles for Changes launched in May 2018 by Julie Atkins, a journalist covering homelessness in Oregon and up and down the West Coast.
Oregon, like the majority of the United States, has seen its homeless population rise over the past few years. More people are living on the streets, in encampments and in their cars. During the 2016-2017 school year, nearly 23,000 Oregonian students experienced homelessness, according to the United States Interagency Council on Homelessness.
There are a variety of reasons why more families and individuals end up without a place to rest their heads. The cost of living has risen dramatically while wages haven’t, shifts in the economy can create gaps in job opportunities and sky-high medical bills, even with health insurance, can send a family spiraling into debt.
Atkins started investigating solutions outside of homeless shelters and tiny homes, which each have their strengths and weaknesses
“We wanted to create a home that would last 30 years, that would truly be mobile and would take homelessness off the table for a child for the rest of their childhood,” Atkins told NationSwell.
She found a solution inside of a retired school bus.
“There are a lot of reasons why buses just make for a great canvas,” she said.
School buses go through rigorous safety inspections, have features like windows and roof exits and, at 240 square feet, provide a decent living space. The biggest bonus is that they’re drivable.
If a family can pack up and move without leaving their home behind, they’re able to find more job opportunities, Atkins explained. Low-income families often rely on temporary jobs, which means they move more frequently. But the costs of moving from place to place frequently can quickly drain a family’s savings; a bus provides more flexibility without the financial burden.
However, moving has its drawbacks. Children who switch schools are more likely to disengage and fall behind. A study published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine found a link between moving frequently as a child and higher risks of criminality, suicide and drug abuse. But many homeless children have already moved multiple times. It’s possible that not having to start over with a new living space holds an added benefit.
After writing a blog about her idea to convert buses into homes, a reader offered to fund Atkins’ nonprofit for the next five years, donating $25,000 each year. So, she got to work.
Each home costs about $25,000 to buy and build. Atkins works with a contractor to turn the buses into skoolies, adding a full kitchen, bunk bed, master bedroom and living space to each.
From there, the bus is leased out to a family, for free, for one year. Atkins will help the family find a place to park the bus, whether in an RV park, a designated safe parking lot or on private land. If the family wants to keep living on the bus, they have the chance to purchase it using a sliding scale, interest-free payment plan through the nonprofit.
For the Flood family, their bus has been life-changing. As they approach one year of living in their skoolie, they’re hoping to buy it, Atkins said. The family has found a community at the Jackson Wellsprings RV park. Since moving in, the three children have made friends, grown an herb garden and gained a sense of permanency. “Their life has changed dramatically as a result of this,” Atkins said.
“It made the little money we had stronger,” David told People. “It took the stress off of our lives. It allows us to breathe for a moment.”
Atkins understands bus life might not be for everyone. For some, it can act as a safe stepping stone back to living in a house or apartment. For others, if the space is manageable, it could serve as a permanent home.
Vehicles for Changes is currently finishing up its second bus and accepting applicants. It already has a third bus ready to be refurbished, but the nonprofit is in need of financial support.
Their goal is to finish two additional buses by the end of this year and complete five in 2020. Atkins said she also hopes to add solar panels to the roof to decrease energy costs and make the homes carbon neutral.
She sees buses as one simple solution to ending homelessness and hopes to see other communities replicating her work so more families can get off the streets.
“We know the buses exist. We know the need exists. We know that the money, $25,000 for a house, is a lot cheaper than any other option that anyone else has come up with,” she said. ”The goal is that every community out there who sees this as viable jumps in and starts this process themselves.”
More: These Austin Tiny Homes Could House 40% of the City’s Chronically Homeless Population
10 Innovative Ideas That Propelled America Forward in 2016
The most contentious presidential election in modern history offered Americans abundant reasons to shut off the news. But if they looked past the front page’s daily jaw-droppers, our countrymen would see that there’s plenty of inspiring work being done. At NationSwell, we strive to find the nonprofit directors, the social entrepreneurs and the government officials testing new ways to solve America’s most intractable problems. In our reporting this year, we’ve found there’s no shortage of good being done. Here’s a look at our favorite solutions from 2016.
This Woman Has Collected 40,000 Feminine Products to Boost the Self-Esteem of Homeless Women
Already struggling to afford basic necessities, homeless women often forgo bras and menstrual hygiene products. Dana Marlowe, a mother of two in the Washington, D.C., area, restored these ladies’ dignity by distributing over 40,000 feminine products to the homeless before NationSwell met her in February. Since then, her organization Support the Girls has given out 212,000 more.
Why Sleeping in a Former Slave’s Home Will Make You Rethink Race Relations in America
Joseph McGill, a Civil War re-enactor and history consultant for Charleston’s Magnolia Plantation in South Carolina, believes we must not forget the history of slavery and its lasting impact to date. To remind us, he’s slept overnight in 80 dilapidated cabins — sometimes bringing along groups of people interested in the experience — that once held the enslaved.
This Is How You End the Foster Care to Prison Pipeline
Abandoned by an abusive dad and a mentally ill mom, Pamela Bolnick was placed into foster care at 6 years old. For a time, the system worked — that is, until she “aged out” of it. Bolnick sought help from First Place for Youth, an East Bay nonprofit that provides security deposits for emancipated children to transition into stable housing.
Would Your Opinions of Criminals Change if One Cooked and Served You Dinner?
Café Momentum, one of Dallas’s most popular restaurants, is staffed by formerly incarcerated young men without prior culinary experience. Owner Chad Houser says the kitchen jobs have almost entirely eliminated recidivism among his restaurant’s ranks.
This Proven Method Is How You Prevent Sexual Assault on College Campuses
Nearly three decades before Rolling Stone published its incendiary (and factually inaccurate) description of sexual assault at the University of Virginia, a gang rape occurred at the University of New Hampshire in 1987. Choosing the right ways to respond to the crisis, the public college has since become the undisputed leader in ending sex crimes on campus.
This Sustainable ‘Farm of the Future’ Is Changing How Food Is Grown
Once a commercial fisherman, Bren Smith now employs a more sustainable way to draw food from the ocean. Underwater, near Thimble Island, Conn., he’s grown a vertical farm, layered with kelp, mussels, scallops and oysters.
This Former Inmate Fights for Others’ Freedom from Life Sentences
Jason Hernandez was never supposed to leave prison. At age 21, a federal judge sentenced him to life for selling crack cocaine in McKinney, Texas — Hernandez’s first criminal offense. After President Obama granted him clemency in 2013, he’s advocated on behalf of those still behind bars for first-time, nonviolent drug offenses.
Eliminating Food Waste, One Sandwich (and App) at a Time
In 2012, Raj Karmani, a Pakistani immigrant studying computer science at the University of Illinois, built an app to redistribute leftover food to local nonprofits. So far, the nonprofit Zero Percent has delivered 1 million meals from restaurants, bakeries and supermarkets to Chicago’s needy. In recognition of his work, Karmani was awarded a $10,000 grant as part of NationSwell’s and Comcast NBCUniversal’s AllStars program.
Baltimore Explores a Bold Solution to Fight Heroin Addiction
Last year, someone in Baltimore died from an overdose every day: 393 in total, more than the number killed by guns. Dr. Leana Wen, the city’s tireless public health commissioner, issued a blanket prescription for naloxone, which can reverse overdoses, to every citizen — the first step in her ambitious plan to wean 20,000 residents off heroin.
How a Fake Ad Campaign Led to the Real-Life Launch of a Massive Infrastructure Project
Up until 1974, a streetcar made daily trips from El Paso, Texas, across the Mexican border to Ciudad Juárez. Recently, a public art project depicting fake ads for the trolley inspired locals to call for the line’s comeback, and the artist behind the poster campaign now sits on the city council.
Continue reading “10 Innovative Ideas That Propelled America Forward in 2016”
Street Books: This Library on Wheels Brings Great Reads to People Living Outside
For the past five years, Laura Moulton has spent her days in underserved areas of Portland, Ore., lending books to people living on the fringes of society.
Those living outside or in temporary shelters are usually barred from borrowing books from regular libraries because they lack the required documentation (such as identification or a home address) to get a library card. Additionally, their everyday lives often make it hard for them to return books in good conditions and on time, triggering hefty fines and dissuading them from the practice, Moulton, an artist and writing professor, explains.
In 2011, she launched Street Books, a bike-powered, mobile library to ensure the homeless community has access to literature.
“Being recognized and spoken to on the street and offered a book for someone who has really been struggling can be a really powerful thing,” Moulton says. “Books have the power to have us feel empathy and have us experience the thrill of a journey of someone else”.
So far, Street Books have served more than 5,000 patrons, many of which have become regulars.
Discover more about Street Books and its patrons by watching the video above.
Here’s Yet Another Reason to Love Ben & Jerry’s
If you ever feel guilty about cheating on your 2015 diet goals with some Ben & Jerry’s, just think: By eating the icy treat, you are helping someone change their life.
As Good News Network reports, every time you indulge in the tasty brownies inside a tub of Chocolate Fudge Brownie or Half Baked, you’re also supporting the workers at Greyston Bakery, a business in Yonkers, N.Y., that employs people who just need a second chance.
Yahoo.com’s Rachel Tepper writes that most of the workers are people who’ve been “previously incarcerated, addicted to drugs or alcohol, homeless or faced other issues that made them seemingly unemployable.”
Good News Network notes that as soon as a new spot opens at the company, it’s given to anyone who is in line for that job — no questions asked. Not only that, Greyston also helps them with personal development tools and provides them with professional skills.
MORE: Ever Wondered What To Say To A Homeless Person? Here Are 5 Things to Say And 5 Things Not to Say
The forward-thinking company also offers subsidized housing and childcare to its employees, and it also gives back to the larger needs of the community by maintaining community gardens, offering nutrition education classes and providing free job training programs.
Ben & Jerry’s has been working with the bakery since the late 1980s and hasn’t looked back since. Learn more about the company in the video below:
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When Skiers Leave Behind Warm Clothing, These Teens Dole It Out to the Homeless
There’s more than a mountain of snow at ski resorts each season, as giant piles of winter coats, mittens, hats and scarves accumulate in the lost-and-found departments.
Back in 2011, two 11-year-old ski racers from the Bay Area, Corinne Hindes and Katherine Kirsebom, noticed these mountains of unclaimed winter wear at Lake Tahoe ski resorts and decided to use them to help less fortunate people.
They didn’t stop with just donating one batch of coats to homeless shelters and other charities, however. The girls founded the nonprofit Warm Winters, and to date, the organization has donated 5,000 pieces of warm clothing to help thousands of homeless people.
Even though Hindes and Kirsebom are still only teenagers, they plan to expand Warm Winters nationally with the help of a 2013 Jefferson Award, given by a foundation that describes itself as “the country’s longest standing and most prestigious organization dedicated to activating and celebrating public service.”
As part of the award, Hindes is studying leadership with the Jefferson Awards Globe Changers Leadership Program. She aims to expand Warm Winters to 10 ski-friendly states, while keeping the program a teen-led initiative as they work with the National Ski Area Association to get it off the ground at 50 or more ski resorts.
Hindes tells TalkingGood, “There was a time a few years back where I saw a homeless man in a T-shirt and jeans on a terribly cold day in winter and I was horrified by how cold he was, and the fact that he had no jacket to shield him from the cold broke my heart. That was a moment where I gained clarity about my purpose because I knew that I had to help him and others like him in any way that I could, and I had to do all that I could to make their situation better. When I gave my first coat to a homeless person, the smile on his face gave me the most rewarding feeling I had ever felt, and it still does today.”
MORE: How Does A Professional Skier Inspire Kids Toward Academic Achievement?
Meet the Sanitation Worker Who Founded a Nonprofit That Helps the Homeless
Garbage collectors take care of a lot of stuff many of us prefer not to think about. And for the past seven years, one especially thoughtful sanitation driver in Silver Spring, Md., not only collects his community’s trash, he also keeps an eye out for people who need help.
In 2007, Harvey was driving his route for Waste Management when he noticed a lot of people sleeping out on the streets — despite the fact that there were shelters nearby. “Sometimes I guess when the shelters get full they have no other place to go,” Harvey tells Good Morning America. “So they’ve got to turn to the streets even if it’s for a night or two they’re out there.”
Harvey couldn’t get the homeless people out of his mind. He and his wife Theresa began to make sandwiches and collect blankets, which he then distributed. But Harvey wanted to help even more. According to People Magazine, his brother helped him make a video of the homeless people along his route, which he showed his manager and then asked, “Is there anything we can do as a company?”
Harvey began to collect donations at work, and he and his wife soon founded God’s Connection Transition, a nonprofit that helps 5,000 homeless and low-income people a month. The Harveys convinced companies including Safeway, Pepperidge Farm and Costco to donate food, which they stock in a rented Gaithersburg warehouse. Hundreds of needy families stop in once a week to shop for what they need.
“As long as I know there’s somebody out here … It’s hard to go home sit at a table eat a meal,” Harvey, who still delivers care packages to homeless people in the early morning hours, tells Good Morning America.
MORE: Meet the Man Who’s Putting Dry Socks on the Feet of the Homeless
Through This Simple Household Task, Volunteers Show Their Love for the Low-Income and Homeless
If you’re lucky enough to have someone else washing your clothes for you, chances are that person loves you. (And it’s probably your mom, dad or spouse doing the dirty work.)
A volunteer mission called Laundry Love, however, spreads the affection beyond the immediate family to help the needy get the clean clothes that otherwise might be hard to come by.
According to the nonprofit’s website, Laundry Love began about 12 years ago when members of a church in Ventura, Calif., wanted to know what they could do to help a homeless man known as T-Bone. He said, “If I had clean clothes I think people would treat me like a human being.”
Since then, many other churches and volunteer groups have joined the effort, renting out a number of Laundromats across the country for a night to wash the clothes of homeless and low-income people, while also getting to know them and trying to help them in other ways.
Krysta Fauria of the Associated Press spoke to Victoria Mitchell, who began coming to Laundry Love gatherings in Huntington Beach when she was living in her car with her baby daughter. The volunteers took up a collection to help her rent an apartment. Now Mitchell has a steady job, too.
“You’re not just checking a box to give a donation. You’re spending the whole evening with these people and getting your hands dirty and it’s intimate — you’re doing people’s laundry,” Mitchell’s friend and Laundry Love volunteer LuzAnna Figueroa tells Fauria.
Some of the volunteers were once down on their luck, too. Christian Kassoff, founder of the Huntington Beach Laundry Love chapter, was once addicted to heroin and living out of his car. Now he leads an enthusiastic group of volunteers helping others. “I’m not wealthy, but I have the gift of time and a heart for it, so this fits,” Kassoff tells Fauria.
MORE: The Surprising Way a Shower Could Save a Life
The Small Colorado Coffee Shop With a Large Purpose
Non-profits and other charitable organizations aren’t the only workplaces that do good. When Seth and Kelly Kelley, co-founders of RedTail Coffee in Fort Collins, Colo. opened shop in May, they decided that their business could make a positive difference in the world.
The coffee shop is staffed by two trained baristas and one employee who is currently homeless, Think Progress reports. According to RedTail’s website, the company has partnered with Fort Collins Housing Authority, Hand Up, and the City of Fort Collins to provide job training, educational opportunities, and careers to the local homeless community.
In fact, RedTail Coffee’s new employees will be exclusively hired from their immediate vicinity, Red Tail Ponds, a new residential project being built for local homeless and low-income individuals.
A February study found that in just Fort Collins, the homeless population has grown to nearly 300 people, about 50 more from just last year.
MORE: When San Jose’s Homeless Work to Clean Up Their Community, They Receive Food, Housing, and Even Jobs
The Coloradan reports that the Kelleys got the idea for their shop after attending a “heated” neighborhood meeting earlier this year, where some people expressed their fears and negative stereotypes over the new housing project. Kelly hopes that her coffee shop will “break that barrier.”
Seth told Think Progress, “It challenges the idea that people who are homeless are lazy or just aren’t working hard enough.” In fact, RedTail’s current homeless employee (unnamed in the article) has to wait in line every morning to shower at the shelter just to get ready in time for his job.
“It takes a tremendous amount of work, way more than the average person, just to get out of homelessness,” Seth said.
But it’s clear that taking a chance on someone who society might not be considered “hireable” is paying off. Reports say that in the few months the shop has been opened, the company has already turned a profit.
“It’s been a big learning curve for us all,” admits Seth, “but we’ve grown through the process.”
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Showers and Toilet on Wheels Give Homeless a Clean Slate
Silas Borden has spent the last five years living on the streets of San Francisco. He’s used to making the best with what he has, so when he stumbled upon a bus offering free showers and toilet, he couldn’t resist. “Living on the streets, no matter how clean you try to stay, you’re going to be grimy,” said Borden as he prepared for his first shower in over a week, “and I want to wash it off.”
Borden is one of the first beneficiaries of a pilot program from the nonprofit Lava Mae, which has retrofitted an old city bus into a souped-up sanitation service on wheels. The bus, which is equipped with two showers and a toilet that run off city water, travels the streets of San Francisco and aims to provide 300 to 500 showers a week.
Doniece Sandoval, the brains behind the operation, was inspired after reading about the lack of options available to the more than 3,000 homeless living on her city’s streets. “There are only seven drop-in centers in the entire city, and that translates to 16-20 shower stalls,” says Sandoval, who plans to add three more buses to her fleet because of the success of these test runs.
Read more about Lava Mae