When Helping the homeless there are expenses associated with providing assistance. Here are some reasons money is needed when helping the homeless:
Supplies: Purchasing essential items like tents, food, water, clothing, blankets, coats, hats, socks, gloves, underwear, and personal hygiene products to distribute to homeless individuals require financial resources. Sometimes these items are not available through donations.
Transportation: The homeless have many places they need to go to, and get a ride home from. When possible we are happy to transport them. It gives us an opportunity to talk to them about the situation they are in, along with discuss how Jesus is with them. This involves fuel costs. Most of the time they take public transportation they sometimes ask us for the bus token fee, when possible we do pre purchase bus tokens. Uber is an essential tool for when we get an emergency call after hours. We had a few instances where the individual missed the last bus and it was a stormy rainey night. Uber is also a safer option that saves us time and wear and tear on the car.
Temporary Housing: If you're helping homeless individuals find temporary shelter, you need funds to cover the costs of emergency housing or hotel rooms in certain situations. There are not to many options out there for emergency housing. The department of social services is the best option available. Unfortunately not all people qualify.
Medical and Health Expenses: Some homeless individuals may require help to cover prescription medication co-pays. Money is essential to help cover this expense. With the recent revamp of Medicaid prescription plans, medicine that never had a co-pay now does.
Programs and Services: Supporting or contributing to programs that offer job training, addiction recovery, mental health services, or housing assistance often involves financial donations. We support other homeless outreach organizations in our area.
Awareness Campaigns: Future goals for homelesslongisland is raising awareness about homelessness and the issues it entails these events will require funds for marketing, events, and educational materials.
Administrative Costs: in running an organization or initiative aimed at helping the homeless, there are administrative costs associated with running the operation. Insurance, bookkeeper, attoney fees, and accountant fees. To name a few.
Emergency Assistance: Sometimes, homeless individuals encounter unforeseen emergencies, that requires the need for temporary financial aid. Having resources available to address these situations can be crucial.
Volunteers are essential to the effort to help the homeless, however they do have expenses that need to be covered. The biggest being gas, there is a need for petty cash for all volunteers for the unexpected emergency or for the unexpected hot meal. Along with other miscellaneous cash out lay.
After care: We have had a lot of success getting homeless individuals off the streets. Once they have a place it is usually a shared room. Even though they are on DSS which covers most there food needs. They still reach out for help with blankets, towels, and personal hygiene products, to name a few. We are there for them to help them adapt physically, mentally, spiritually, and financially (when donations are not available).
We like to provide every homeless person a bible. Bibles cost $5.00-$10.00 on Amazon. Click on the link to see our Amazon wish list for the homeless and there needs: https://www.amazon.com/hz/wishlist/ls/1YE1ULBN0V90I?ref_=wl_share
We are a faith based 501(c)3 through Abundant life church of God. We are in the process of becoming our own 501(c) 3.
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