Helping the Homeless

I have a new widget on this blog. I’ve decided to try to help some of the local homeless people who want to organize a protest.  The issue is, how can they get what they need in order to be able to conduct an effective (not to mention legal) protest? There are some 95 homeless people who all have issues they want to air as a group, which means it’s more money than I can take out of my own pocket to help them. Once the funds become available, I’m sure it will actually double.

This money would also be used to help people who are not necessarily homeless, but who are too broke to afford things like magic markers and posterboard. The homeless tend to be invisible to most people. When I heard some of the things they want to protest, I was actually surprised!  I almost couldn’t believe the well-reasoned and rational arguments that were being forwarded. There were some real whoppers, too… but that’s a whole different thing: the valid points are what we aim for, like some of the following:

• Access rights: many homeless complain (and have records of) harassment by police officers, who want to get them out of an area because they scare people by their appearance (and really, some soap is all they need in many cases).
• Donations: many people use the homeless as their own personal trash deposit for things they would feel guilty about throwing away. This includes broken toys, ragged clothing, expired and spoiled food, and things which the rest of us would really find no use for.
• Communications: Believe it or not, I was there when an officer confiscated a brand-new cellular phone from a homeless man on the grounds that he couldn’t possibly have afforded it (and arrested him on suspicion of drug peddling). Knowing what I do about the guy, I can say the charge is not unfounded, but it was unwarranted. The police still hadn’t returned the phone 4 weeks later.
• Harassment: Police harrassment in general, particularly of those with gang-oriented tattoos (and who aren’t associated with those gangs any more). Apparently, people aren’t allowed to straighten up their lives.

And a plethora of others.

Even if it gets no laws changed, keeping the homeless essentially bound and gagged doesn’t serve the rest of us. It means that if we become unwanted, the same can happen to us. I’ve watched it happen.