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!