How can I help homeless people on the street?

Tulip09

In Dundee there is also the Streetlevel project (just off Albert Street) & The church up by the Uni helps homeless people in once a week for food etc, they also do nightly walks around the town finding homeless people and helping them out with various things also the Mormon church on Bingham Terrace helps them out also. I used to live in Dundee and some of the older homeless people have been back to my home for warm food as well as Christmas dinner etc (but i can be a bit mad and regularly told off because of it, but in 5 years i never had one problem with anyone of them). There is also a place up the Hilltown next to Our Ladies Primary School, who help out all homeless people in the city (housed in temp accommodation/unhoused. They really helped me out when we found ourselves homeless due to a fire that wrecked my home.

martindow

tibbles209 wrote: »

I live in Dundee.

You could try these people for suggestions on how you could help

http://www.volunteerdundee.org.uk/about/default.htm

I think your thread has made a lot of us stop and think as we are swept along in the Christmas madness.

muffin69

I previously worked for a homeless charity where we had several rules for people who used to come in wanting to help homeless people at this time of year.

1. Don't ever take a homeless person home.
2. Consider your own safety, ensure the organisation can help with educating you on this matter.
3. Work with an organisation or charity.
4. How long would you be able to help out for, be honest with yourself and the organisation.
5. Ensure you have your eyes wide open when undertaking this work. (Think how you would respond to a homeless person who needs to take their boots off when they have been wearing them and the same pair of socks for over 5 months, Can you handle it?)

It's great that people want to help but they need to make sure they are ready for what they may see/experience, the wrong reaction can cause lots of problems for the homeless person and the organisation/charity involved.

Savvy_Sue

Another charity I'd like to flag up is NightStop - don't think it's any help to the OP as not operating in Dundee but perhaps of use to others.

this is an excellent idea for PREVENTING the cycle of homelessness and all its attendant risks, which are magnified for the young people this is aimed at.

basically volunteers offer a bed for 1-2 nights, a shower, a meal, a listening ear, to youngsters in need for any reason. it gives a breathing space for stat services to make appropriate provision - you don't want to put a 16 yo girl in a B&B full of addicts / sex workers for example! yet that may be the only option which can be offered in a hurry.

the young people are vetted and risk assessed, the volunteers are checked, trained and supported. and it changes lives.

pigeonpie

with the govt cutbacks it's just going to get worse I fear. I remember in the 80s all the homeless, some of whom were mentally ill, under Waterloo Bridge and in Lincoln's Inn Fields. Hostels are difficult. I met a young man who only had 50p to his name, who had been in a hostel and had his only pair of boots stolen while he was asleep, so he wanted to stay on the streets.

Often someone homeless has a dog. I always try to stop to briefly chat or smile and ask about the dog, what's his name etc, a neutral conversation for a woman to have with a homeless man, as it's inevitable that you can feel vulnerable and awkward. I think mostly the problem is that, as others have said, the homeless are invisible. In London this is acute as Londoners don't make eye contact or say hello to anyone else, not just the homeless.
I give to St Mungos and to Shelter as it is so difficult to know what one person can do, other than acknowledge the existence and plight of another human being. When I get worried is when someone homeless is just lying there in a huddle, asleep or out of it.
In France on the nightly news bulletins they carry the phone no of the emergency services for SDFs (sans domicile fixe - homeless) so that if anyone sees someone in trouble, they can call for specialist help. I wish the UK would do that too.

link for donations for Crisis at Xmas http://www.crisis.org.uk/index.php

A_LANCASHIRE_LAD_2

Last year myself and my wife when we lived near Castleford rang the local Salvation Army and asked them how we could help them. We purchased some 80 sleeping bags,gloves,torches,hats,batteries rather cheaply off Ebay and tbh ive never ever felt so fullfilled as a person i felt so happy when the chap from the Sally Army came and thanked us so much for our effort .....please spare a thought for those who arnt so fortunate at this time of the year ....t

C-C_3

tibbles209 wrote: »

I live in Dundee. What I really want to do is get actively involved in actually helping people, not just fundraising for a particular charity. Most of the volunteer stuff I can see around here just involves working in charity shops and not actually directly helping anyone. Not really sure what to do, I bought a homeless man some lunch and a hot drink today and had a chat with him. He seemed to really appreciate someone taking the time to do that. Just wish I could do more...

The one that came to mind was the Cyrinians in Dundee - http://www.cyrenian.co.uk/our_services.htm

I am sure there will be others but I remember taking left over clothes there after a jumble sale years ago

tinkertaylor05

It's so nice to see people wanting to help others, I have worked for a homeless charity for a number of years now and we are always grateful for anything that comes our way either in terms of time, money or items

There's been some great advice already, I would just echo to anybody wanting to help to be aware of there own safety. This is not to demonise or stereotype homeless people but more to use the approach that you would with any person not known to yourself.

http://homelessuk.org/details.asp?id=LP10 is somewhere you can search for local organisations other than google.

Also I would encourage anyone to report people sleeping rough if they are aware of it happening or see evidence ie blankets left etc most local councils will have some information on the website or a quick search for your local area should hopefully bring something up.

KittyLady

I spent time living rough, I wasn't a druggie or a drunk, I was pregnant and my partner threw me out with nowhere to go. I have to say, if it hadn't been for the kindness of other rough sleepers, keeping me safe and warm, who knows what might have happened.

Things that I personally do around christmas.
- I go through my cupboard, anything that's been sat there for a few months (obviously in date still), I didn't need that much, I take a bag down to the local soup kitchen of tins and they are always very grateful.
- I have a list of my local shelters/YMCA/YWCA with directions from the town centre and print it off and give it to people. If it hadn't been for a woman telling me about the YWCA taking women in, I'd have never got back on my feet. They took me in three days before christmas, six months pregnant and gave me a room of my own, a fridge, help to claim benefits.
- I have been known to carry spare hats and gloves, I'll generally make a joke and give them the one of my head and hands and tell them to keep safe.
- I buy big issues, the ones to spot are the people only holding one copy, when you start selling, you are given one copy to sell, the money that makes enables you to buy more the next day. I tend to buy one, flick through it and pass it back to the seller and tell them to pass it on rather than me recycle it in my paper bin.

Sometimes, just a kind word and a smile instead of shoving your head down and pretending they don't exist can make them feel like they are still someone.

Don't just remember the homeless though, there are thousands of old people sat in an unheated house with a blanket on christmas day. Smile at them and wish them happy christmas, chat to the little old man who lives at the end of your street, he might be sat there with no gas to cook and all it would take is taking over another plate of turkey to make christmas a good one for them too.

Sarah_Harvey

Not to be harsh here, but having recently found myself out of a job, I will gladly say that the benefits a government pays you is next to nothing. As a single person with no family or friends, it is probably the harshest thing I had to endure really. I can't say the same for parents claiming benefits, hence why I suspect so many girls under 20 end up falling pregnant in the UK.

Personally getting £65 a week to live on means I am scraping by. I don't get anything else. So take in account that I have to buy food, pay for traveling to interviews (sometimes up to 3 interviews a week), print elaborate 'applications' (yes! ...when I am forced to fill in 9-15 page applications for a job), pay for my printer's ink to print these applications out, pay for postage stamps and envelopes (A4 to A5 size for these massive 'applications'), pay my broadband bill and phone bill as sometimes applying for jobs require that I call them up to get the details (and I honestly have no friends or family, so I am not calling anyone else for that matter... my entire phone bill goes to searching for jobs).

Let's see what else... oh yes! Let's not forget my water charges, electricity and gas. Plus every second week it is a requirement to travel to the job centre to specifically state what jobs I have applied for and provide evidence or else I don't get my measly £65 a week.

Sure... people on benefits like me are getting so much money we can actually drink every day. Wow! I never thought of that actually.

Let's see... can I afford to drink? No. Can I afford to go out? No. Can I afford to buy clothes? No. Can I afford anything awesome like a Playstation or Wii for Christmas? No.

In actual fact looking at my circumstances, I just moved into a new flat, have a bed that I was lucky enough to buy from my last paycheck when I worked and nothing else. I can't afford carpets since the housing association ripped everything out and I can't even afford furniture.

Perhaps people are a bit misguided in what people on benefits get. I think someone could get by on £65 if they didn't do much and didn't eat, but spend it on drink. I think I heard that some people are doing that.

So what does it teach me? It pays to have a kid or two in tow to claim for them and then give them only the basics so that I can afford 'cool' stuff and hopefully have a partner that claim jobseekers also. Then we can have a party and afford all kinds of things.

Well to be fair I see these types of people at Cash Converters and wonder where they get the money to afford Playstations since I can't.

Sad state of affairs isn't it?