"Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest."

I have been thinking that one of the hardest challenges people might have of living homeless on the streets, would be the cold nights. Last night was a freezing 5 degrees and we are almost into summer! How do people survive, it must be as much a mental torture as a physical one. My friend in London says homeless people die in the cold nights there, all the time.

I wonder what emergency accomodation options are out there? On the basis of just providing shelter for the night I wonder if the Japanese style Capsule Hotel, would be a good idea...?

It provides the most economical use of space, could be open all night, and provided with tea and coffee, it could provide a helpful specific service, that can then direct people to other services for longer term help.

Of course you would need to keep the men seperate from the women and children, either on two floors or have two different hotels. I would call one 'Bankruptcy Hotel' and the other 'Smaratan Station'.

Say What?

I went to visit a minister in the city, this morning. I parked out the front of the church and put my money in the meter to max it out, for its 1hr limit...

I came back out 1hr and 5mins later to see a Parking Inspector writing me a ticket. I walked up and said 'How're you going?'. He said "I haven't finished writing the ticket yet, so you're fine." Then smiled and walked off...
SAY WHAT ??!!

A: Has there been a proceedure change to issuing tickets?
B: Is he the only friendly Inspector in existence? or
C: Do I look sexyier than I think I do?

Sell Everything, Give to the poor...

Hi folks,
Tomorrow Sat 4th Nov, it's my garage sale :)

- All money made goes to the Homeless community.

I hope to have fun !

UPDATE:
I had a great day, bro!

7am to 9pm and I didn't notice the sun till I woke up burnt the next day. A fair few people came by and chatted. It was like a community social event. I met and chatted with the neighbours for the first time, which was cool. Also a fair few people chatted with me about homelessness and social justice, talking about their own poverty experiences, which meant it was a great learning-connecting-understanding day.

I raised a good amount for the homeless community and will ebay the remaining good items this week, then the rest to the Salvos. Rock'in.

The challenge now:
Is to work out the best way to give the money, to help the homeless, effectivly...?
(Let me know if you have an idea.)

Update: I gave half the money to a charity that works with the Homeless, but I really want to do something on a direct 1 on 1 basis. I have been told cash wont help, as it will be used on a short term benifit, that will not change their outlook. Also that if you buy them something they will only try and convert the item to cash, usually a refund. I was told by someone that after they bought a street person a cheese burger and walked away they then saw the person return to get a refund on the cheesburger... So what about taking someone to a restarunt, or putting them up in a hotel room for the night. Giving them some dignity and friendship, but would that help in a long term sense?