Please be especially kind to the unsheltered this time of the year— it’s very challenging to be without a home when it’s rainy and cold!
Maya Angelou once said, “Try to be a rainbow in someone’s cloud.” Santa Barbara sure has its share of clouds this week and there are endless opportunities to be a rainbow.
Here are some ideas for helping people who are unsheltered and food deprived:
- Volunteer at the local warming shelters and inform people on the streets where they can find them. Offer to arrange an Uber for them or to give them bus faire if needed. They are typically open 6:00 am – 6:00 Pm: click here for information: https://ussb.org/justice/fwc/
- When you buy a hot beverage at a Coffee Shop for yourself, buy an extra one and give it to the someone living on the streets. You can even ask the cafe staff if they would let you take a few hot coffees or teas to hand out, for free.
- When you eat at a restaurant, buy an extra dish: eat half the meal yourself and get a to-go box for the other half and offer it to someone who may not be able to afford to eat there. Or better yet, invite them to join you and get to know them!
- Hand out emergency rain jackets, umbrellas, and dry socks.
- Hand out gift cards for Drinks, meals and what ever else they need.
- Ask people wet and sad if they would like you to get them a hotel room for a night or two. I know I would, if I were in the position with no money and my back against the wall, unable to defend against the elements but also afraid of the dangers of staying in mass shelters. Survival is often the exercise of having to decide between risks! It would be so nice if you could help keep someone get warm and cozy and alleviate all their stress for a while! This is a kindness one will always remember: the kind that could give someone the strength to make positive changes.
- Check in with people you think might be distressed or in need of comfort and ask them what they need! Never assume, just ask. So many times I have asked, and nobody has ever taken advantage of me, it’s usually, “Will you buy me a meal at McDonald’s?” Or a “I’d love a coffee at Starbucks”, or “Do you have a few dollars or change you can spare? Take the time to ask their needs in that moment and show you care. It’s amazing how a warm heart will spread the heat to the body!
“Acts of kindness never die. They linger in the memory, giving life to other acts in return.” -Jonathan Sacks
Also Read
- Op-Ed: A Spate of New Studies Gives the Lowdown on California’s Sky-High Living Costs
- Op-Ed: Newsom’s Gas Price Crusade Morphs Into Bid to Keep Refiners Open
- Op-Ed: They Took Her Passport and Treated Her ‘Like Property.’ Will a New California Law Help Workers Like Her?
- Op-Ed: Even California’s Iconic Industries Are Cutting Back in This Sluggish Economy
- Op-Ed: Sheriff Brown’s War on Transparency
Or if you can’t afford to buy these things, just be kind. Realize that homelessness can and does happen to almost anyone, even people who are working, who don’t drink or use drugs, who aren’t mentally ill, etc.. They’re just too poor to be able to afford to keep up with even the basics in today’s insane economic meltdown.
Sidebar: Don’t use euphemisms for “homeless”. I know it’s hard to process and uncomfortable to even think about, but sugar-coating this harsh truth with feel-good descriptions like “unhoused” and “unsheltered” serves no purpose except to make the people using these descriptions feel better. Yes, homelessness is messy, disconcerting, uncomfortable, unpleasant, and upsetting…but it exists. Calling homelessness by these euphemisms is like calling cancer “C-A”, which I actually once knew someone who did this.
She was telling me why she had been in the hospital, and she pointed at her chest and blushed, looked around to see if anyone could see her, and whispered “It was….you know…c-a..”. This same woman called toilet paper “t-t-paper”.
If some people are uncomfortable and have to use euphemisms and cutesy words to describe unpleasant things then those people need to grow a spinal column. Use the correct words for things, body parts, actions, situations. It’s not “respectful” or “sensitive” to call a homeless human being “unsheltered” or “unhoused” just so you aren’t uncomfortable having to say “homeless person” out loud and face the fact that in the richest and most technologically advanced nation on earth…people…even people with jobs…are living on the streets.
And when you see a homeless person, look at them…smile, and say “hello”…the way you would anyone else. Yes, I know that some people are not safe to do this with…and they aren’t all necessarily homeless…so use your judgement, but if the person is just…homeless…at least acknowledge that they exist. That person could just as easily be you, or your mom or dad, grandparent, or adult child who can’t afford to keep up. You don’t have to buy anything…but for goodness sakes…kindness is free of charge.