But What Do You Do?

As a follow up to the article I posted below, I want to talk about what you can do when you see a homeless person in need of help. In the case below, the very obvious thing would have been to call 9-1-1, but in most situations the person is not literally bleeding to death on the sidewalk in front of you.

For several weeks, every morning on my way to work I passed a homeless woman pushing her baby in a shopping cart in my neighborhood. Something was blatantly wrong with the situation--the baby was very young, and the mother could have stayed in an emergency shelter. I passed them by every day for weeks, and the image still fills my heart with guilt. I chose to not do anything for very selfish reasons--fear, discomfort, being too busy, not knowing how to help. All of those things were completely unacceptable--they were selfish, they were about me.

If you're in Houston and you see someone who is homeless and might need help, there is a very simple thing you can do.

SEARCH Homeless Services provides case management and helps people who are homeless access needed services like housing, medical care, mental health care, substance abuse treatment, food, and clothing. They are the experts--I don't know what to do other than hand someone a bag of food and some clean socks, but the social workers at SEARCH are trained to work with people who are experiencing homelessness and help them in a very meaningful way.

They have an Outreach Team that drives around in a bright green van connecting with people who are homeless and letting them know there is a place where they can get help, and transporting them if that is a need.

You can call on someone's behalf by dialing their helpline--713-739-7752

You can also print out these cards and hand them to people you encounter http://www.searchhomeless.org/ResourceCard.pdf

Please don't use "not knowing what to do" as an excuse to not see those who are in plain view.