To our homeless and hungry friends: Most of you know that Arlington House is closed for a couple weeks. We are serving dinner tonight at First Prez on Green Street at 7:00 p.m. Come eat with us and tell everybody. Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday breakfast next week at Grace at 7:00 a.m. And we’re doing more meals until Miss Terry comes back. See you soon. We love you all!
Read more on Homeless dinner location for 10/31/2008…
Tonight was the Food Not Bombs dinner at the HIVE. A lot of the people who eat at the FNB dinners are homeless, and some are formerly homeless. Tonight, one of my formerly homeless friends came and brought her daughter. They went in the kitchen and got out the biggest serving bowls, then came back to the meeting space and pulled out huge bags of candy that they’d brought with them, and began filling the bowls. There are lots of Glenwood neighborhood kids at the HIVE and at the FNB dinners. You should have seen their eyes! My friend and her daughter passed out candy to the kids and to all the adults. I got a Milky Way. It was so good.
Read more on Currently and formerly homeless helping homeless — and teaching me…
I’m on the phone with one of my formerly homeless friends. He was out canning and dumpster diving this morning and he found a really nice blanket and a hooded sweatshirt. He gave it to a homeless guy who sleeps outside. (Like he used to.) A soda truck driver saw him picking up cans and gave him a case of diet soda that was about to go out of date. My friend brought those with him to his Bible study class and passed them out. He also gave one of the (recently homeless) ladies at the Bible study a sweater that he got from some college kids.
Read more on Formerly homeless helping homeless…
The Homeless Hospitality House on Arlington Street has closed again, this time until Nov. 13th, due to the director’s health concerns. Please pray with us for Miss Terry’s speedy recovery, and for a time of rest and healing. We love you and appreciate you, Miss Terry.
Read more on Meal site closed for two weeks — need to feed 150+ homeless people…
Fox8 interviewed some of our homeless friends (Mississippi, Junior and Bobby) and one of the GPD cops we partner with (Tim Tepedino) about the freezing temperatures and the lack of shelter. (Story, video.)
Read more on ‘If it wasn’t for police, we’d freeze to death’…
Video source: Fox8, WGHP, on their web site here, reported by Leah Beno
It was good to see Odell in that clip. He used to fly a sign in the Aycock/Lee Street area, and I haven’t seen him for a while. Good to know he’s OK and to find out the area where he is now. We’ll have to find him on NightWatch. I know everybody would be glad to see him. I sure was. (So was my momma, who remembered his name.)
Read more on Fox8 Video: Winter Shelter Crisis…
98.7 FM Simon’s Picnic in the Plaza will be at Governmental Plaza in Downtown Greensboro on Wednesday, Oct. 29th from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. You can get a hot dog or a hamburger, chips, fruit, and an ice-cold bottle of water, all for only 98 CENTS! All the money goes to benefit Make-A-Wish!
Read more on Eat cheap, do good…
I’m in the conference room at Greensboro Urban Ministry, talking to director Mike Aiken ahead of a 3:00 p.m. meeting about the looming winter shelter crisis.
Mike says:
“I think we can get ahead of it, if we can get that Katrina spirit. It’s a hurricane we see coming.”
Amen to that. Our community was ready to offer an open-armed reception to thousands of Katrina evacuees. Where’s the commensurate compassionate response for our local homeless folks?
Read more on ‘It’s a hurricane we see coming’…
I just got another phone call from a cop. Two of the homeless guys downtown had their blankets stolen. And the cops are out of blankets. So I’m going to get more. And I’m going to a meeting about emergency winter shelter this afternoon. Overnight temperatures are forecast to be below freezing this week, and cold weather shelters don’t open until mid-December. And at this moment, we don’t have enough shelter for everyone.
Read more on Replacing stolen blankets and preparing for freezing nights…
This weekend, I learned that a homeless friend got a temporary job with a catering company during furniture market, and that he’s been bringing home containers of leftover food and making up plates to feed other homeless people at night. I also saw another homeless friend ride up on a bike with plastic grocery bags full of clothing tied to the handlebars. He got off the bike, opened the bags and rummaged through them, and then silently handed out shirts and pants to the homeless guys I was talking to. “Thanks, man,” one said. “We help each other out,” said the other one, with a smile.
Read more on Homeless helping homeless…
Homeless people are having difficulty accessing substance abuse treatment in Greensboro. Many have told me that they’ve called or visited Guilford Center, the county mental health agency, and just been given the phone number for Bridgeway, the county treatment center. But when they call Bridgeway, they get a recording telling them to leave a name and number, which they can’t do, because they don’t have a phone. So they reach a dead end. No treatment.
Read more on Homeless people struggling to access county substance abuse treatment services…
Robert Lupton, in Theirs Is The Kingdom:
Somewhere on the way to becoming rich we picked up the idea that preserving our property is preferable to expending it for the people. Why should it be so difficult to decide which is wiser: to open the church for the homeless to rest or to install an electronic alarm system to preserve its beauty?
Thanks for the reminder of this quote, Jessica.
Read more on The Church’s choice: Protect property or use property to protect people?…