Category: Blog

I don’t give cash to folks living on the streets when they ask me for a handout. I do ask them if they are a Vet and, if so, I know how to give them a hand up out of homelessness. After listening to their stories and letting them know that I care, I connect each one to special help.

I give them a card with information about how to reach qualified, caring responders from the Department of Veterans Affairs. In fact, anyone concerned about the welfare of a Vet can call 1-800-273-8255 to talk, chat online at http://veteranscrisisline.net/, or send a text message to 838255 to receive confidential support 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year.

These responders do more than listen; they mobilize and connect Veterans to supportive services that are all focused on getting them back on their feet. The Veterans Administration, HUD, local governmental organizations and nonprofits work together to create a blanket of help providing many hands that reach out to pull each individual and their families back up. Everyone finally realizes that Veterans need a coordinated effort that provides secure housing, nutritional meals, basic physical health care, substance abuse care and aftercare, mental health counseling, personal development and empowerment. Just sending Vets to the nearest shelter isn’t enough.

This is a great start because 20% of the men in the homeless population are veterans. Meanwhile, 1.4 million other veterans are considered at risk of homelessness due to poverty, lack of support networks, and dismal living conditions in overcrowded or substandard housing. The cuts from the sequester and lack of a federal budget agreement are hitting Vets hard with 900,000 losing food payment support as the monthly Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program (SNAP) has been allowed to expire.

And it is working. The VA is on target to enroll more than 10,000 Veterans in a special program called the Homeless Patient Aligned Care Team (H-PACT) by the end of 2013. Providing health care for the homeless is key to advancing the VA’s goal to end Veteran homelessness by 2015. Their special programs are pulling Vets out of homelessness.

Over a dozen years, I’ve met many Veterans at our annual winter gear giveaway for people who are living on the streets of Seattle and thanked them for their service as I gave them coats, socks and sleeping bags. This Thanksgiving Day, I have printed out cards to give them so they can get special help. Here’s the template so you can, too.

Founder Patti Dunn is accepting coats and sleeping bags for Survive the Streets’ Thanksgiving Day Gear Giveaway in Seattle http://bit.ly/16VpnHT and donations to a pilot program that prevents homelessness http://survivethestreets.org.

It has become apparent that nonprofits have been hit hard by the shutdown on two fronts. Federal programs have furloughed government workers who enable and distribute the funding plus the government cannot pay the grants and other support payments agreed to for programs, including those serving homeless youth, that need to continue running. But nonprofits, even with their coffers running low, continue innovating using technology to build ways to bridge the gaps. The efforts come on three fronts:

1)     Crowdfunding and Directed Giving to Enhance Donations

With funds already low because of sequester cuts, getting donations to keep programs running is essential. It has been made easier with a variety of resources, sites and tools. Scientists have turned to crowdfunding to keep their research underway and many have left federally funded research teams to startup new ways to acquire donations and publicize their efforts. The beauty of crowdfunding is that many small donations are aggregated to make a big impact for a nonprofit organization.

Directed giving (where donors can pick the organization, cause or even a particular person that they want to help online) offers nonprofits a great way to market their efforts and demonstrate how funds have already helped to solve social problems. In one example, thousands of domestic violence shelters rely on government funds and are now facing the real threat of shutting down. Sadly this catastrophe comes during National Domestic Violence Awareness Month. Many shelters are taking advantage of technology to set up online directed giving campaigns.

2)    Social Media Campaigns

Sharing stories and connecting with supporters keeps nonprofits moving forward especially through the budget fight storm. It’s not only each organization’s own Facebook and Twitter accounts that have been lighting up with with stories shared about how the government sequester and shutdown are impacting service providers; the sharing and retweeting connects organizations allowing them to learn from each other and build efforts together. It also bring forward ideas and information, such as sites that are tracking the changing funding environment.  Social media is being used privately by furloughed public officials to continue getting the word out about volunteering and offering  humor as they try to cope. (Justin Herman, who usually works as the social media guru for the General Services Administration, started the Twitter updates #shutdownbeard.)

3)    Connecting the Concerned

Emails and websites may not be the newest technology around but they are making it easier for people to both donate and volunteer. Many furloughed workers are choosing to provide volunteer work during the shutdown and use websites to share public service activities.  And, to connect these workers with paid opportunities, https://www.unfurlough.us/ has taken off (after starting as a Google doc circulated among startup companies in DC). The online and traditional media engines are jumping in now, too, with special content on their own websites when they see Twitter postings explode on subjects like the shutting down of Head Start programs around the country and the possibility that military death benefits may not be paid.

All this publicity has brought some saviors to stench some of the wounds. But the efforts to get help to nonprofit organizations may be too little too late for some and others won’t have the knowledge of how to leverage technology. Provide your expertise or fund one of the organizations to keep the help flowing.

Patti Dunn is the founder of Survive The Streets, a crowdfunding site that prevents homelessness currently running a pilot program in Seattle. This nonprofit’s Razoo campaign raises funds to build out its directed giving platform so Survive The Streets can expand to additional cities.

We see it all the time, people on the streets holding their signs asking for money. It breaks your heart to see anyone living on the street and you reach for some cash. This is where I ask you to take a minute and rethink your actions. Cash often does not help. You just cannot be sure how that money is going to be spent. There are better options.

Give them some food or, even better, offer to buy them food someplace nearby and spend a few minutes getting to know them.  Not only do you then know where your money is going but you have also sent a message letting them know that you care and they are worth your time. That is what Washington Wizards rookie Otto Porter Jr. did recently.

Don’t give cash as it could enable an addiction. One report from the Department of Housing and Urban Development found that six out of ten homeless respondents admitted problems with alcohol or drugs. Two-thirds of homeless people reported that drugs and/or alcohol were a major reason for their becoming homeless in another study. They could use your cash to buy the stuff that kills them. Don’t help them do that.

Ask them what they need. According to Leo, who has been surviving on the streets of New York City, “I can go through $100 in a few days. In a week.”  He is being taught how to code and has been supplied with a laptop and books by a tech entrepreneur who offered him a choice of money or training. “He told me I could have a laptop and learn how to do something and I figured it could turn into something more.” The two have now spent an hour a day for a month and the support is helping Leo turn his life around.

Do give to support local nonprofit organizations that serve homeless individuals and families in your community. You can find the best with a quick search: http://www.charitynavigator.org/. Help them to make a difference. These organizations offer food, shelter, clothing, and connect people with services in an effort to get them off the streets forever. Offering care, not cash, works. Almost 2000 people are off the street thank to a program doing that in San Francisco.

Pay for an item that will be delivered directly to help someone survive the streets. We’re preparing for our nonprofit’s  14th annual Thanksgiving Day giveaway of coats, socks, boots, sleeping bags, gloves and other gear needed to help the homeless survive the winter months on the streets. Other events like this take place around the country. Last month, the United Way’s Day of Caring Resource Exchange brought together 100 service providers, along with 600 volunteers, to provide items and services to 1,400 people facing homelessness all on one day at the Seattle Center.

Employ technology as a force multiplier. Look for organizations using crowdfunding to combine small donations to pay for an item or service that can keep an individual or family on track and fighting homelessness. Then, rally your social network to come together to pay for an item or service. Combining $10 donations goes a lot farther than when you give cash to one person holding a sign on the street. Just don’t give them cash.

Patti Dunn founded Survive the Streets in Seattle to help solve homelessness. Her Razoo campaign is raising funds to expand the project into additional American cities.