Current Needs List: Updated Monday, 11/28/2011 Tuesday, 12-13-2011

Our current needs list (made by homeless people, with help from GPD):

• blankets (The kind you would want if you lived outside in winter!)
• sleeping bags
• firewood (if you can deliver; we’ll go with you; we will continue to have a need for firewood all winter long)
• air mattresses (twin, full or queen; real mattresses, too, if you can deliver; used is OK; we’ll go with you we now have 3 actual mattresses committed, so at this point we just need air mattresses — thanks!)
• tarps (to go over tents; need concealment colors only, please — olive green, gray, brown or camo — no blue, orange, bright green, etc.; must be in good shape, no holes)
• tents — any size, new or used
• heat sheets (survival blankets; we hear they’re literally life savers!)
• camp stoves and propane
• thermal tops & bottoms (NEW; mostly mens XL & XXL, some XXXL; )
• NEW men’s thick white athletic socks and/or winter wool boot socks
• NEW men’s fleece caps and warm, heavy gloves (lightweight knit gloves don’t stop cold well)
• men’s boots, any size, new or used (work boots, winter boots, etc., boots for living outside, if used, good condition)
• men’s HEAVY winter coats; XL or larger, the larger the better (if you live outside, you layer, so the coat needs to be the biggest thing)
• toilet paper
• bottled water
• hand sanitizer in bottles or wipes
• chapstick (mostly for guys, not girly kinds, please!)
• instant and ground coffee (powdered sugar & creamer packets are great, too!)
• peanut butter
• saltine crackers, Ritz crackers, etc. (to go with peanut butter)
• tuna fish, vienna sausages, beef stew, chili, pork & beans, beanie weanies in pop-top cans
• canned pasta (ravioli, spaghetti & meat balls, beefaroni) in pop-top cans
• nutri-grain bars
• individually packaged snacks (Little Debbie, cookies, Lance crackers, etc.; something sweet or salty)
• AT THIS TIME, WE DO NOT NEED ANY HYGIENE ITEMS, ANY FOOD OTHER THAN THAT LISTED ABOVE, AND NO OTHER CLOTHING ITEMS THAN THOSE LISTED ABOVE.

On clothing items, larger sizes are always better. Guys can wear something that’s too big, but not something too small. Ladies can wear men’s clothing, but not vice versa.

Please drop off donations in the StreetWatch collection box (inside the lobby of the building) at Greensboro Police Department Watch Operations, 2602 S. Elm-Eugene Street (same building as Water Dept.; see map below). If you’re donating large items (tents, stoves, air mattresses, etc.) — anything too big to fit in the collection box at the Police Department, please contact us by email at outreach@streetwatchgreensboro.com and we’ll arrange to get those items directly from you or to meet you at our storage unit. If you have firewood, we’ll meet you at the camp it’s going to. If you’d like to make a financial contribution, please email us at the address above and we’ll tell you how.

THANK YOU & GOD BLESS YOU!!! ~ Michele Forrest & Audrie Keen, StreetWatch co-founders

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Thankfully, the closing of the dorms didn’t displace any families, but it does mean that for now, that’s three families or 16 individuals Greensboro’s Center of Hope won’t be able to house, and in a city with many more homeless people than homeless shelter beds, that’s not good news.

According to Center of Hope Executive Director Jackie Lucas (via email), no new families or individuals can move into the Center of Hope until the new mattresses are purchased. You can help. Please send a monetary donation to:

Jackie Lucas, Executive Director
The Salvation Army Center of Hope
1311 South Eugene Street
Greensboro, NC 27406

Thank you!

Related news story, from Fox8:

“The Social Security Administration (SSA) has proposed changes to the way decisions are made for awarding disability benefits based on a mental impairment. These changes will threaten the ability of people with serious mental illnesses to obtain benefits….

The changes appear in a regulation that would amend the “Medical Listings” -the standards that SSA uses to determine eligibility for Supplemental Security Income (SSI) and Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) benefits. While the proposed new Listings include some very good features, these are undermined by a provision that could limit the number of people with mental illnesses who can qualify to only one or two percent of the nation’s population. This is far below even the most conservative estimate of the number whose mental health disability makes them unable to work (the criterion for eligibility for federal disability benefits) and who therefore need this monthly income.”

~ Read all of “Social Security Disability Rules to Change – for Better and Worse: Agency Needs to Hear from You” — then, take action!

Jimmy is 69 years old. He’s worked all his life, and is a military veteran, but now, at retirement age, he is living in a tent in the woods.

[video link]

Jimmy says that he’s eligible for Social Security, but doesn’t have the identification he needs, including his DD214, to get Social Security retirement benefits. Since this video was made in July 2009, my friend Deb, a NightWatch team leader, has been helping Jimmy get some of the help he needs.

Mark Horvath filmed Jimmy at one of the camps on the Mitchell property off Spring Garden Street. All of the people living in homeless camps on that property will be displaced during the next phase of construction on the Greenway. We welcome your prayers for them, and any thoughts you might have on relocating them. It is our understanding that most of the local housing programs that might be able to assist them are currently full. If you know of housing options, or if you can help Jimmy or any of our other friends at the Mitchell camps, please respond in the comments.

This video was made by Mark Horvath during the Greensboro stop of the InvisiblePeople.tv Road Trip USA, sponsored locally by Quaintance-Weaver, and donors Ed Cone, Salvage America, and RecycleBills.com. Thank you, all!

Helping the Homeless — The GPD’s Center City Resource Team is collecting winter coats, hats, gloves and boots for the homeless. If you would like to donate any of these items, please deliver them to one of the Police substations: 1106 Maple Street, 300 S. Swing Road, or 2602 S. Elm-Eugene Street. You may also drop off your donations at the GPD administrative offices in the Melvin Municipal Office Building, 300 W. Washington Street.

See why we heart the popo?

Friend: “Im at the uncg campus library, but they have changed things around here pertaining to the pcs so I will not be here but for 5 mins”

Me: “how did they change it”

Friend: “no chairs and theres a time limit for l5 mins on the one I am on”

Me: “no chairs?”

Friend: “alot of the homeless was taking up the pcs for hours and the students couldn’t get on them; I don’t blame the library, I understand”

I understand, too. But how do we solve this problem? (Other than time limits and disappearing chairs?) The Interactive Resource Center, a day center for homeless people, is now open on East Bessemer Avenue. The center has a computer room. They need computers, desks, and chairs. Donate or call or email someone you know who can.

I’ve visited the women’s winter emergency shelter at Grace Community Church the past two nights, and it’s a peaceful and happy place to be. I already knew most of the homeless women who are staying there, but it’s so cool to get to hang out with them at night like this. It’s like a big slumber party, which is exactly what we all talked about at the library months ago, when I first spoke to some of these ladies about winter shelter, and asked what they thought about doing a women’s-only shelter at Grace. They were excited about the idea, and I have to say, it’s even better than what we imagined.

Tonight, they were eating cake and ice cream to celebrate a birthday, playing cards, writing out Christmas cards, laughing and joking and talking, and just enjoying being in a warm, dry, safe, comfortable place with people who care about each other. I had such a sense of joy and peace being with them. I got to hug them all. I got to say “I love you” and hear it back from them. And those are not just words. These ladies are precious to me. We may sleep in different places, but we laugh at the same things, we long for the same things, we cry about the same things, we struggle with the same things.  We are mothers, daughters, sisters, friends.  I am so thankful to my church for providing a safe place for them. Thank you, LORD!

Earlier in the evening, Audrie and I found one of the ladies who had signed up for the shelter but hadn’t come in yet. We brought her in before the shelter opened to see the room. Her eyes lit up when she saw the beds with clean linens and fluffy comforters and the piles of towels and bags of toiletries — plus a bin for each woman to store her things. But we had talked with this precious friend last week when we served soup at the library, and we knew some of what she was struggling with, and that it wasn’t an easy decision for her to make.

We hugged her and told her how much we wanted her to stay. We told her, “You’ll be safe here.” Her eyes filled with tears and she nodded. As we all left to go to the memorial service and dinner, Audrie and I were praying that she’d come back and stay. When I came back a few hours later and saw her there, I was so happy and relieved. Thank you, Jesus!

She was sitting on her new bed, holding her Bible and calling out favorite verses from memory with one of the volunteers. When I left later, she was sitting quietly, wearing her reading glasses, studying her Bible. She’s been sleeping outside for a long time, and she’d told me and Audrie that she wakes up in the middle of the night and reads her Bible. It was so good to see her in that room, warm and safe and at peace, doing what she loves — reading her Bible. It is such a gift and an honor to be with her, to be with all these ladies whom the LORD loves so much. He is sheltering them…

“He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will rest in the shadow of the Almighty…”
– Psalm 91

***The women’s shelter at Grace will be open through March 15th and we need volunteers and donations. Please click here for more info. Thank you to Marsha Cole at Grace for your tireless efforts in making a home for our friends!

From the News & Record:

The fund  had raised $44,103 as of Friday.  Requests for shelter are up 32 percent at the Salvation Army of Greensboro.** Greensboro Urban Ministry has seen a 30 percent rise in assistance requests. Shelters are crowded. Food pantries are nearly bare.

Donations will be distributed to FaithAction International House (www.faihouse.org, 379-0037); Greensboro Urban Ministry (www.greensborourbanministry.org; 271-5959); Lutheran Family Services (www.lfscarolinas.org; 553-1501); Salvation Army of Greensboro (www.salvationarmyusa.org; 273-5572); Senior Resources of Guilford (www.senior-resources-guilford.org; 373-4816); and The Servant Center (www.theservantcenter.org; 275-8585).

You can help by making a tax-deductible donation at Operation Greensboro Cares’ Web site or sending a check to Operation Greensboro Cares, P.O. Box 14985 Greensboro, NC  27405. Number is 378-6600. If you want to volunteer, call the Volunteer Center of Greensboro at 373-1633.

**Although NightWatch is sponsored by the Salvation Army of Greensboro, we are not an official Salvation Army program and we are not a funded ministry, so no funds from Operation Greensboro Cares will be disbursed to NightWatch. We will continue to provide food (both hot meals and snack bags) to homeless people living outside this winter through our street outreach ministry. You may make a financial contribution to NightWatch through our ministry partner, Men Of Vision & Excellence, a 501(c)3 non-profit. Donate online here. Your contribution is tax deductible. You must note that your donation is for “NightWatch” in the designation field on the online form.  If you send a check, please write “NightWatch” in the memo line.  Thank you.

Wear clothes with history. Pay less. Do more.

» Goodwill

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