Helping the Homeless One Person at a Time (but maybe with A Team Outreach to stay safe and not give to scammers)

A caring successful person posted about seeing a homeless person near her home and wanting to help. She posted his resume online and that's a unique approach. He had them ready and he seemed like a good guy on hard times.

So hopefully that can work. Ideally she could have made certain he'd not take advantage of her attention. We likely could think on the Do's and Don'ts of helping a stranger or even a friend and yes, even family. It's not easy to know what to do when there are a host of factors getting in the way of someone paying basic bills, getting to jobs or programs due to lack of transportation or wardrobe or other challenges (no childcare or other Basics...) I was home with my own children and cared for other people as I could (other kids and elderly if I could get some time to do so...)

Getting back into the paid work force was a huge challenge and I was coming from a secure base of having a home to live in, a good car to get around rural roads year-round (with some tough winters and plenty of iffy weather with storms and occassional hurricanes or even a tornado or two.) Suddenly being home and staying home seemed the better choice and factored into me being a 'home-based mom' for over 15 years. But in the past decade, all that changed.  Without offering legal advice, be aware that many experts say the One Thing No Protective Parent, especially a Mother who might be the victim of abuse, Should Even Do is move out of one's home without one's kids.

  A Congressional House Resolution 72 is currently seeking to have mothers (the victim of abuse generally by a primary aggressor) keep or get custody of their children since that is in the children's best interest..To Be Safe. Who'd think we'd have to split hairs over what is more important for children..having a home or having a protective parent? Every state has ways to deal the cards out of someone's life in an array of ways. While there are no guarantees in life, there is a growing number of ways that show children are safer and develop in more balanced and safe ways if they maintain their bond with their protective mother.

Please do some research about this since October is Domestic Violence Awareness month...and about half of the homeless are running from abusers or otherwise left in poverty when successfully getting custody of their children yet need support. Plenty of intact families or single parent families need help in general. The more efforts that work toward helping people meet the basics and have some back ups to keep everyone 'in the loop'..fed, housed, provided for and cared for in basic ways.

Even abusive people, men and yes, women too, often feel isolated or stressed by keeping up with the Jones' or maintaining a life dream or path that may have started out simply. Even wealthy people can have a huge kind of dysfunction even if there are means to meet basic needs. If the management or the controlling dynamics  take over, all bets are off. Then there's a spectrum of neglect whether intentional or benign...mistaken or otherwise.

More people in NYC etc are helping the homeless through new forums... Some are scammers, not all and likely not this fellow. However everyone needs to be more careful than not since usually if people can get a caseworker and comply with some basics for a couple of months then there is a way to get one's basic housing and so on.

Many church groups or other networkers could come to the fore and assure a community they will help people who come to them. Specifics would be very helpful as to who they can help and how they can help people with basics. Construct in Great Barrington MA is a good example of a community effort, not perfect, but a good start for a Community.

Then there's a lot on WOOFING (Working on Organic Farms...and sure that likely means some carpentry, and includes a place to stay and so on.) Ideally teams of Men would be ready to help women.

These are just some Basics...My heart has gone out to many in a variety of situations and I hope to blog more about which places help who..even with tickets to a safe place (home or friends who will sponsor them if they could just get there...)

Sharing after a couple of years in the city, so just hoping to address the bigger problems..and likely there are more resources in NYC than CT, so maybe that would be one step. If really homeless maybe being in a warm climate such as Jacksonville Fl. would make sense (and be able to sleep on the beach where that's legal...)

Social Permaculture has some good ideas but overall we need more people to help guide and oversee these new ways of relating, and make sure people are safe and monitored so others are not compromised in the name of helping the less fortunate...

Sometimes 12 step programs have ways of networking and helping people, so there are a few options...Best to not approach someone alone and so getting a buddy (or two) to do some outreach and put up posters that others can take a picture of and share likely would be good. Then there's 211.org and CT was going to help people with finding work also...