How You Can Help the Homeless
Understand Who the Homeless Are - Help dispel the stereotypes about the homeless. Learn about the different reasons for homelessness, and remember, every situation is unique.
Respect the Homeless as Individuals - Give the homeless people the same courtesy and respect you would your friends and family.
Develop Lists of Shelters - Carry a card that lists local shelters so you can hand them out to the homeless. You can find shelters in your Yellow Pages.
Buy "Street News" - This biweekly newspaper is sold in almost every major American city and is intended to help the homeless help themselves. For every paper sold, the homeless earn five cents deposited in a special savings account earmarked for rent.
Bring Food - When you pass someone who asks for change, offer them something to eat.
Give Clothing - Next time you do your spring or fall cleaning, keep an eye out for clothes that you no longer wear. If these items are in good shape, gather them together and donate them to organizations that provide housing for the homeless.
Give Toys - Children living in shelters have few possessions --if any-- including toys. Homeless parents have more urgent demands on what little money they have, such as food and clothing. So often these children have nothing to play with and little to occupy their time. You can donate toys, books, and games to family shelters to distribute to homeless children.
Volunteer At A Shelter - Shelters thrive on the work of volunteers, from those who sign people in, to those who serve meals, to others who counsel the homeless on where to get social services.
Volunteer At A Soup Kitchen - Soup Kitchens provide one of the basics of life, nourishing meals for the homeless and other disadvantaged members of the community. Volunteers generally do much of the work, including picking up donations of food, preparing meals, serving it, and cleaning up afterward. To volunteer your services, contact you local soup kitchen, mobile food program, shelter, or religious center.
Visit these sites for more information on how you can help make a difference in your community:
Goodwill
Donate clothing, jewelry, toys, housewares, records, tapes, and CDs as long as goods and materials are in good, working condition. They also accept automobiles.
www.goodwill.org
The Salvation Army
Donate clothing, blankets and linens, furniture, household supplies, etc. To schedule a pick up of goods to be donated please call 1-800-95-TRUCK
www.salvationarmyusa.org










Comments
DEAR MS.TYRA BANKS;
WE APPRECIATE YOU HELPING THE PEOPLE THAT ARE LESS FORTUNATE.
ME AND MY SISTER REVEREND DR.JACKIE JONES ARE HELPING THE HOMELESS WITH EDUCATION,JOBS, HOUSING SO THE LESS FORTUNATE CAN STAY OR GO ON TO FURTHER THEIR CAREERS.
THE ROSE THEATRICAL AGENCY IS RAISING OTHERS SELF ESTEEM - IF YOU COULD FIND IT IN YOUR HEART TO HELP START OUR BUSINESS PLEASE CONTACT US AT: thatsshowbiztv@yahoo.com
THANK YOU FOR YOUR CONCERN. HOPE TO HEAR FROM YOU SOON.
SINCERELY,
MS.DEBBIE PITTMAN
PS: WE ARE CURRENTLY HOMELESS.
Posted by: DEBBIE PITTMAN | July 22, 2008 11:22 AM
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Posted by: renters insurance in florida | July 17, 2008 9:34 AM
hey tyra im homeless and my name is cheyenne brooks we been on the streets for 8 to 9 years my mom asking people for money just to stay in a 80 dollar motel because we cant go to no other motel tyra please help us im tried of staying on the streets and in a motel cant stay in a car because we dont have one.i just want something i can call my own.staying in a motel having a little amout of close tyra i hope u just under stand me and know where i come from.please tyra im begging u and if u think about it contact us at 983-6359 and that will be my aunts number or are motel number 983-7411 room 316 adress 1405 east 4st at the days inn thanks tyra i know that u would take time to help people u care about and wont let down
Posted by: | June 20, 2008 1:10 PM
hey tyra im homeless and my name is cheyenne brooks we been on the streets for 8 to 9 years my mom asking people for money just to stay in a 80 dollar motel because we cant go to no other motel tyra please help us im tried of staying on the streets and in a motel cant stay in a car because we dont have one.i just want something i can call my own.staying in a motel having a little amout of close tyra i hope u just under stand me and know where i come from.please tyra im begging u and if u think about it contact us at 983-6359 and that will be my aunts number or are motel number 983-7411 room 316 adress 1405 east 4st at the days inn thanks tyra
Posted by: | June 20, 2008 1:06 PM
hey tyra im homeless and my name is cheyenne brooks we been on the streets for 8 to 9 years my mom asking people for money just to stay in a 80 dollar motel because we cant go to no other motel tyra please help us im tried of staying on the streets and in a motel cant stay in a car because we dont have one.i just want something i can call my own.staying in a motel having a little amout of close tyra i hope u just under stand me and know where i come from.please tyra im begging u and if u think about it contact us at 983-6359 and that will be my aunts number or are motel number 983-7411 room 316 adress 1405 east 4st at the days inn thanks tyra
Posted by: | June 20, 2008 12:58 PM
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Posted by: antique car insurance online quote | May 28, 2008 6:21 PM
Iam in danger to become homeles with my 2 boy I had work hard to give the the best wellfare. I need resources some how please somebody call me my son is on fransoir william on images go to googles .I am 40 year old that I will love to write a book about my strugles.an the onlyone the holding me together is god please somebody help us.
Posted by: patricia william | May 13, 2008 6:19 AM
I need help iam in danger to become homeless I have 2 son a 4 and 11 year old with sholarships . I am strugle day by day I just finish a nurse training from udc pay for I on tanf in washington dc AT thjis time I dont know how am going to make next month I suppost to star orientaion on a nursing assitant job I dont want my children thing to be on the street my children impact I am more concern for them please help me to work hard in what to do please give 5 minutes of your time. I just need may god bless you. if you check my son is on fransoir william images on google I have a big story about a 40 year old sinngle mother tha is doing everything to give my son a better future. I hoped to hear from you kindly.
Posted by: patricia william | May 13, 2008 6:12 AM
Hi,I'm Laura and I watch Tyra all the time.I have heard her say that if we e-mail her,she will personally answer back.So my thing is,where & how can I go about e-mailing Tyra,Even though I know she's a very busy person...I do believe she'll take time out for her fans...you can call me at 704-499-7033,,or teardropsful@yahoo.com...
Posted by: Laura Steele | April 17, 2008 11:12 AM
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Posted by: | April 5, 2008 10:00 PM
Dear Tyra
I just wanted to tell you that my friends and I were talking about your show and we just wanted to tell you that maybe you should do a show for kids. To show kids how lucky they are to have a roof over their head. It would be great if you could do that. My own daughter even agreed that you should do that. She told me that a lot of her kids at her school dont really care about the things that they do own but the things that they would like to own. My daughters point here is that Be grateful for the things you do have other than the things you would like to have.
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Posted by: | March 3, 2008 8:05 AM
Hey Tyra this is Sadije i watched your show about Teen Pregnanty and i really think what they are doing is wrong because its like they have no respect for themselves. i am 13 years old and im not a coulter girl or anything like that! i am the same just like everyone else. i like to hang out go to albanian parties and all that but there is something i would never do in my life!! lose my virginity to some guy that you think you love but all it is, its just a crush!! i have a BF too and they crazi thing is that he is black and my parents don't like him, but that dosen't keep me away from him. He is also muslim which is a really great thing. bc i am too. my still my parents don't like him... the thing i am trying to say is that i you should make a show about teenage boys...why do they get girls to have sex with them when they know that there might be a chance that, that his girl could get pregnanut!! i want to hear what they got to say! Bc the thing is if my BF asked me to have sex with him i would say no bc i have respect for myself and if he threatins me i let him go bc there are millions of guys out there that would wait. And also i have school to finsh and i want to go to collage and become a fashion designer. none of my sisters belive that i could do it. but i know i can if i fight for it i know it'll come true. I don't want to go to school with a child in my arms and not finsh school i know better than that!! well i hope you spend time reading this bc i really want you to think about this. well G2G love Sadije@@
P.S i wrote you before
Posted by: Sadije | February 25, 2008 7:33 AM
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Posted by: ariel | February 7, 2008 12:10 AM
Hi Tyra
Thank you for the great work you are doing to the world kindly come to my aid assist me to buy the house am living in with my family i have fail to meet $15,000 for its cost help 2boys,my wife and me from becoming homeless i will be gratiful my cell +260 977 795 358
Teddy from Zambia
Posted by: teddy | January 28, 2008 3:36 AM
its very sad for people to suffer right inside the USA while its government is heavily investing in other things
also its ussually in the forefront to help and to challenge the thirdworld countries.
plase the USA should try and help its ciizens.
am so sorry anyway and pray that God will alwways help them.
Posted by: morri | January 17, 2008 9:41 AM
Hi Tyra, I just wanted to say there is this crazy homeless person around where I work; we like to call him "C drive". He likes to stumble up to people on the street and say things like, "Hey yua goatse asdfa aroiadlk fbuk......???". Which I assume is tramp speak for "excuse me sir, could you be so kind as to spare a bank note for me; I could really use some legal tender." He seems nice enough, but is clearly insane; I want to help, what should I do. He smells so bad I swear I can see the stink lines emanating forth. My favorite is when is does his daily drunken jig in front of my office window; which I imagine takes quite a bit of effort to be completely intoxicated at such a time of day.
Posted by: Justin Myers | November 28, 2007 9:33 AM
Hey Tyra,
I was thinking about ways to help homeless people. Even if you yourself can't afford to bring food.
What do restaurants do with food that people can't pay for? I know it's illegal to re-sell the food. But what about giving the food to shelters?
(Of course, maybe some restaurants do that already.)
So, keeping that in mind, I'm going to do some research on the subject!
- Susie
Posted by: Susie | October 30, 2007 6:41 PM
Hi Tyra, my name is Kirsten, I'm a 26 yr. old at home mom. I want to share my personal story with you. I grew up in a bad home, and when I say "bad", I mean my mother was neglectful and hard on me in all aspects. Well, when I was 15 I decided I had had enough. I lived in cardboard boxes in the woods behind my favorite childhood playground, I only ate at school because my mom recieved free lunches for me, and I had to move from time to time to avoid wild animals and sometimes hormonal young men. This went on for about 6 months before I got into trouble with shoplifting. Being sent to juvenile hall was probably the best thing. I had a warm bed, 3 square meals and got to talk to someone about what was going on. After getting out, a friend of mine asked her parents if I could stay with them. They are a good Christian family and said yes right away. I worked and was living a good life with their help. Some time passed and I got pregnant. I was 19 and afraid. The father of the baby knew, but "forgot" about me and that I told him. I was desperate. I contacted my biological father in Florida, whom I hadn't seen since I was 16. He agreed to let me stay with him and help me through, because there was no "choice" or "option", (I'm pro-life), and I wanted to keep the baby even though I was so young and naive. Months pass and my father isn't living up to what he had told me, he stays out late drinking and when he picks me up from work, is driving illegally and drunk. One night he gets pulled over and arrested, and the police escort me home to my father's house. I did everything I could to help my father but he turned on me, claiming I had "made waves". He got out of county lockup a week later and kicked me out. I had nowhere to go, no money and had no other relatives in the area. A young girl I worked with was very mindful of me and she suggested I continue to work and she asked a friend who needed help with rent if I could room with her. This woman had 2 small children, but was an abusive girlfriend to her boyfriend, drank, smoked marijuana and was a full nude stripper at a local spot. I'm not judging her, it just wasn't pleasant staying with her, she took all of my money including what I needed to eat. An older Christian couple living next door started seeing these things and immediately stepped in. The Mahfood family, I'll never forget them. I shared a room with their 18 yr. old daughter whom I became fast friends with, and even helped guide me into my wonderful decision to put my baby up for adoption through a private lawyer. Now, this story is still relevant to your homeless show because of what these wonderful people did EVERY Sunday before church, without fail. Saturday night they would spend over one thousand dollars of their hard earned money to buy food and school supplies for people who were homeless in the surrounding area of their church. We'd make hot breakfasts, sing, dance, have coffee and give out school supplies to the children and these lovely people who just had it so hard. After 3 Sundays of doing this I was totally inspired. I gave all of my shoes away and walked barefoot most of the time except for a pair of flipflops so girls and boys had sneakers for school and play. On the fourth Sunday I was baptized in their family church, and witnessed to 15 people who were baptized after seeing me baptized at 8 and a half months pregnant! Three days later I gave birth to Christopher James, who was adopted by a beautiful family in Florida, who were unable to have children. I felt I had to give back. In private adoptions, mothers are given a sum of money for medical and post birth expenses. I paid my medical bills then gave the Mahfood family one thousand dollars to aid them in their efforts to ease the strife of those wonderful people we sang, danced and ate with. It made such a great impact on my life to be with them for such a short amount of time that, when I came out here to Pittsburgh for Culinary school, every homeless person I came across got a loaf of fresh bread, or a cake or cookie that I had made in class that day. Every time I see someone sitting there waiting on someone to give even a penny, I go buy a coke and a pretzel, or a juice and a sandwich, walk up them and say "here", smile with all the love I can muster up in my heart for them and walk on. There are alot of people out there dying of exposure and starvation, and alot of them are children, veterans, disabled or elderly. Americans should stop and buy that person lunch, have a great conversation with them and give them a hug. Then do it again and again and again! That's the only way these people are going to make it through. Our country is so focused on silly things that we don't even care about each other anymore and it's a shame. We all need to love one another and hunger, homelessness and tragedy would be extinct. Tyra, I love all the work you do, you're not just a beautiful face, you're a beautiful soul, please keep talking about these issues which many people want to "foget", it'll make it hard to forget if we keep talking about it.
Lots of Love,
Kirsten Mae
Posted by: Kirsten Mae | September 27, 2007 9:51 PM
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Posted by: | September 7, 2007 9:14 PM
Hi my name is carrie moreno Iam 31 years old I have 3 boys and I am asking for help for this christmas, I lost my home and i just want my boys to have agood christmas I can not give it to them. Please help if you can I have no email address. message address 2105 w cactus wren dr.
phoenix, arizona 85021
602-8640829 message phone
thank you
carrie moreno
Posted by: carrie | September 5, 2007 11:54 PM
Dear Tyra
hi! this is gena wells and i wrote to you a while ago for a make over but i never heard from you, but i just got thrown out of my appartment and i have no place to go but my mothers house and i cant stay for so long, only for two months, but the reason why i lost my apartment is because i met this guy and he made me feel so good about my self and then next thing you know is that he and i were really serious about each other and then he went out of his way and got a tatoo on his arm with my name and i got his name on the back of my neck and then next thing you know is that he was living with me and he said he was working and everything and next he brought a pay check home and told me to deposted in my bank account and i did and there were three or four checks that he gave me and i thought they were good so i was so happy that i thought me and my daughter were gonna live a good life were i thought i finally met the right guy, and come to find out was that all the checks he gave me were fake check were he got from some were and i thougt they were good and came to find out that he told me that he need the money right away and i gave it to him before they were cleared and come to find out that they were bounced checks and what happen was everyone told me to wait for them to clear but being a single mom and i had no idea this guy could play me like that, so also my brother told me that him and his frieds met girls and they chill in there house and have a good time and then he told me about guys like my so called boy friend ,that there only after a place were they can take over a women that is vulnerble and nieve and thats were i came in and was played, and lost my apartment and had to put every thing in storage and go live with my mother for a couple of months and then i have no other place but to move in a shelter because my mother her landlord only gave her two months for me to stay there,but i dont know were to do,but what im trying to say is that these guys out there are taking advantage of mothers that are going threw hard times and i want to put the word out to other mothers out there were they dont have to go threw what i did , and i still have my job, thank god for that,but i dont have a place to live after two months,and i been played and im ashamed of it, but these girls need to know what these guys are about and hopefully i can explain my story to girls out there . thanks tyra and contact me if you would like more, i struggle working from pay check to pay check and its hard when you have no man around because my baby daddy left when my daughter was born and i was living with my mother and i got my taxes and moved out and for two years at this apartment i was happy, but now i have no place to live , i dont know were to go and all i want is somebody to help me to put up the rent and security and ill be all right and i could use some furnitur because what i have is from the garbage and now that christmas is coming its not going to be the same, so hope theres a god out there that hear my story, and let all the females know that these guy only play you now a days, love ya tyra
Posted by: gena | August 15, 2007 8:12 PM
Dear Tyra
hi! this is gena wells and i wrote to you a while ago for a make over but i never heard from you, but i just got thrown out of my appartment and i have no place to go but my mothers house and i cant stay for so long, only for two months, but the reason why i lost my apartment is because i met this guy and he made me feel so good about my self and then next thing you know is that he and i were really serious about each other and then he went out of his way and got a tatoo on his arm with my name and i got his name on the back of my neck and then next thing you know is that he was living with me and he said he was working and everything and next he brought a pay check home and told me to deposted in my bank account and i did and there were three or four checks that he gave me and i thought they were good so i was so happy that i thought me and my daughter were gonna live a good life were i thought i finally met the right guy, and come to find out was that all the checks he gave me were fake check were he got from some were and i thougt they were good and came to find out that he told me that he need the money right away and i gave it to him before they were cleared and come to find out that they were bounced checks and what happen was everyone told me to wait for them to clear but being a single mom and i had no idea this guy could play me like that, so also my brother told me that him and his frieds met girls and they chill in there house and have a good time and then he told me about guys like my so called boy friend ,that there only after a place were they can take over a women that is vulnerble and nieve and thats were i came in and was played, and lost my apartment and had to put every thing in storage and go live with my mother for a couple of months and then i have no other place but to move in a shelter because my mother her landlord only gave her two months for me to stay there,but i dont know were to do,but what im trying to say is that these guys out there are taking advantage of mothers that are going threw hard times and i want to put the word out to other mothers out there were they dont have to go threw what i did , and i still have my job, thank god for that,but i dont have a place to live after two months,and i been played and im ashamed of it, but these girls need to know what these guys are about and hopefully i can explain my story to girls out there . thanks tyra and contact me if you would like more, i struggle working from pay check to pay check and its hard when you have no man around because my baby daddy left when my daughter was born and i was living with my mother and i got my taxes and moved out and for two years at this apartment i was happy, but now i have no place to live , i dont know were to go and all i want is somebody to help me to put up the rent and security and ill be all right and i could use some furnitur because what i have is from the garbage and now that christmas is coming its not going to be the same, so hope theres a god out there that hear my story, and let all the females know that these guy only play you now a days, love ya tyra
Posted by: gena | August 15, 2007 8:12 PM