What Helps The Homeless

One of the things which makes homeless individuals stick out like a sore thumb is the fact that many of them live without a car. So they walk a lot -- and/or use a bike and/or public transit, but for purposes of this post, I want to focus specifically on the fact that homeless individuals walk a lot more than most Americans. I have literally had the cops called on me for walking in a neighborhood where no one ever walks anywhere. So simply walking in some places is such weird behavior that it makes you very suspicious, and there can be serious consequences merely for walking. There is an excellent essay called Walking While Black (PDF) which is about a black man's experience of walking in his own neighborhood after his car broke down and getting stopped by the police for it. I am a white woman who rarely had anything to do with the police prior to being homeless, yet the piece resonates with me because of my experiences since becoming homeless. So one thing you can do to hel...

In California, you can do small scale recycling of cans and bottles at a lot of grocery stores. This actually includes Walmart and Target (at least some of them -- I have no idea if every single location participates). While on the street, I began doing small scale recycling at a particular store on a daily basis. I was typically there twice a day, every day with a small amount of recycling. Over time, my average increased to something above $2/day. Over the course of a month, that adds up to over $60 a month. If you are on the street, extra money like that can really make a difference. This particular store has you sign a log book indicating how much you brought and how much money it was. When I first began going, most days of the week, my name was the only name there -- twice a day, every day. On weekends, there were sometimes other names but not very many. On more than one occasion, someone either asked me a question or commented about the fact that they had not known y...