Water, Toilet Paper, Tents

One of the hardest things in the software development world is figuring out what you're supposed to build. Not "how" or "when" or for "who", but "what". There is an entire discipline built around this called Requirements Engineering. One of the core principles is that you need to talk to the stakeholders and figure out what they need. Be willing to listen to your customers.

With that in mind, we received some interesting feedback for helping the homeless this past weekend. On Friday, when we were handing out flyers for the Turkey in the Park event the next day, we also handed out bottled water and granola bars. One guy told us that the two hardest things to come by on the street were bottled water and toilet paper, and somebody else chimed in and agreed about the TP.

Then my friend Sara sent me the following after the Turkey in the Park this past weekend:

I met a couple at Turkey in the Park who desperately needed a tent. So yesterday Myah and I delivered a tent to them that we had in storage for a long time. While I was very nervous about going to "Tent City" in the mission district, we ended up having a nice afternoon setting up the tent and talking to many of the individuals that live there.

While we were there we noticed quite a number of individuals that do not have tents and wondered if this is something that your organization is or can get involved with. The couple that I met, Boyd and Christina, said that they can help us identify the specific individuals that need the tents and that won't sell them off for drugs.

This couple also said that they are part of a grass roots organization to establish a permanent "Tent City". They are working with state legislators and the media to have some land set aside. This might be something that your organization can help advocate.

P.S. I had a good time at Turkey in the Park and your organization is helping me better understand the homeless problems in Sacramento.

Interesting things to throw into our planning: water, toilet paper, tents.

By the way, I'd like to find out more about the grass roots organization working on a tent city. Does anybody here know anything about that?

Better and better

When I walk to work I take a shortcut through a parking lot - it saves me about a half a block. Today as I was passing through there I saw an older homeless man - grizzled hair peaking out from his baseball cap, salt-and-pepper beard, wearing jeans and denim jacket. He had a can of Steel Reserve in one hand and a cigarette in the other as he looked and me with a huge smile on his face.

"Woke up this morning, and there was three cans of beer next to my head. Don't remember those when I went to sleep." He laughed.

I smiled and said, "Cool."

He shook his head, "Yesterday I woke up and found a five dollar bill nearby. Can't wait to see what happens tomorrow. Things are getting better and better."

I laughed and we wished each other good days as we went our separate ways.

I hope he finds something even better tomorrow.

Homeless Voter Registration

The following is a brief video from CNN. It's worth a watch and encouraging homeless friends we encounter to make sure that their votes count.

Is Denver Hiding the Homeless?

I've seen several stories lately regarding the Democratic National Convention and homelessness. The gist seems to be that the homeless in Denver are being encouraged to get off the streets by some, while at the same time encouraged to participate in the DNC by homeless advocate groups. It is difficult to know who to believe since sources say so many different things and you'll get a different opinion depending on who you read. I will say that it was great to look over a Colorado Coalition for the Homeless statement and to see that this group views the convention as an opportunity to provide services to families that they provide year round. Other organizations such as the United Way are also doing the work that they normally do, but hoping to use the convention as a platform for advocacy. I came across an article of a salon owner giving haircuts for the homeless too. Here is another article from the Rocky Mountain News.

In sifting through all of the information, I would not be surprised if the typical political move of getting the homeless off the streets was embraced by political figures in Denver as it is in other cities, but I will say that it is great to see so many grassroots organizations doing what they do everyday and really working hard to assist families.

What do you think? Is this good, bad, or both?

When asked for cash...

I generally won't give cash to homeless people on the street when they ask for it. I suspect that there are times when the money is truly needed and will be well-spent, but I also suspect that most times giving them cash is just enabling them to pursue things that aren't healthy. I have no way of distinguishing which of those scenarios applies, so I prefer to help the homeless in other ways. I have two responses when asked for cash:

1. If I'm in a hurry, or broke, I say: "No, sorry".
2. If I have time and money, I say: "Sorry, can't give you any cash, but can I buy you something to eat?".

Here are three anecdotes from my experiences using these two comments:

1) As I was walking to a lunch meeting with some colleagues, I was telling them about Socks and Gloves. A homeless man approached us and asked for cash, and I replied "no, sorry". He responded by yelling "No time for the homeless, huh? You hate homeless people, don't you? Nice suit, but no cash to help somebody?" and on and on as we walked away. My colleagues thought this was kind of funny, but it just made me feel sad for the guy.

2) As I'm walking into Safeway, a guy asks me for cash, and I tell him that I don't have cash, but I'd be happy to buy him something to eat, and ask him what he wants. I suggested a deli sandwich, and he replied: "That's all I've had to eat for a week, and I'm honestly kind of sick of them." Then, he kind of hemmed and hawed a bit, and asked: "Would it be too much to ask for some bread and brie cheese, and water?" Then he immediately backed off from that - I distinctly remember him saying something like "sorry, sorry, that's probably not appropriate for me". I assured him that I had no problem with brie and bread. I asked him to come in with me, but he pointed out that Safeway will hassle him if he comes into the store and walks around with me. So, I went in, bought my stuff, and got him some brie, bread, and bottled water. He couldn't believe it when I came out - he was really pleased to have something good to eat other than the deli sandwiches. It was cool - we talked for a few minutes, and just connected as people.

3) Several years ago I would to a particular Starbucks three or four times a week at around 8:00 AM. There was a guy who waited outside this 'bucks every morning, asking everyone for cash. I would always offer to buy him breakfast, and he would always respond, very politely, "No thank you, my belly's full." There came a point where, due to business travel, I hadn't been there in a couple of months. My first time back, before he even asked for change, I said "Hi" to him, and he replied "No thank you, my belly's full". Then he looked surprised, and we both laughed, and ended up chatting for a few minutes.



Just handing over some cash seems like a bad idea for both sides: it encourages the hander to feel like they've done their part (even though they probably haven't really helped, and may have made things worse); and it encourages the handee to think of them as an ATM machine. It means that neither side of the transaction is really thinking about the other one as a person.

If you can give time or money, but not both, I will always encourage you to give time. You can volunteer with us (see this page for more info), or check out some of the groups listed under the "Local Resources" heading on this page. If you want to give money, well, you could help us out (see this page for more info), or again give it to one of those "Local Resources". In other words, when someone asks you for money on the street, you can either say "yes" or "no", but those aren't your only choices for helping the homeless.

I'm curious - how do you respond when asked for cash?

Do you know who R.U.O.F.S. is?

Hay, Hay, Hay..........Socks and Gloves was donated 50 dollars by R.U.O.F.S. the cow (no joke). He usually sits on the corner of North B and 16th street but has been spotted in many places. If you frequent the area you have seen "R.U.O.F.S." the cow. He lives in the area and understands the need.

I tip my hat to you R.U.O.F.S. (pronounced rufus).

We when say "Sock" it's a noun, not a verb!

This story is from the early days of doing what eventually became Socks and Gloves. Telling (or hearing someone else tell) this story always does two things to me: makes me start cracking up, and makes me blush. It's funny, but I also come off like an idiot. Oh, well.

A group of us decided that we needed to start doing something to help the homeless in Sacramento. We put together care packs and handed them out every few months. Eventually we added socks, gloves, blankets, hot chocolate, and what-have-you, and went to a monthly schedule, put up a website, started a blog.

But this story is from one of our first outings. We were handing out bags with care packs inside - soap, toothbrushes, granola bars, etc. None of had any idea where to go find groups of homeless people, and we hadn't thought about it much. I think we figured that you see enough homeless people around that we wouldn't have any trouble handing out thirty bags. Wrong! Just randomly driving around Midtown Sacramento, you aren't easily going to find that many homeless people - you have to know where they're at. Currently, we can usually give away things to thirty homeless people in an hour or less, but back then it would take us several hours because we really didn't know what we were doing.

Toward the end of the outing in question, we still had six or seven bags left that we were having trouble giving away - we just couldn't find anybody else. As we were driving under a freeway overpass we saw a homeless guy on our right. I shouted at Dan, who was driving, "There's one! Pull over!" As Dan squealed to a halt, I leaped out of the car with a bag in hand and started to say to the guy "here's a bag with..." but he immediately turned around and started running away in sheer terror.

Okay, ha ha, kind of funny, mostly lame that we scared the guy that bad. But that's not the really embarrassing part. The embarrassing part is that I started chasing the guy down the street, holding up the care pack and screaming "I have a bag! With stuff in it! For you!". Oddly enough, this behavior was not quite non-threatening enough to get him to stop sprinting away, so, after about a half a block, I abandoned pursuit.

As I'm typing this in the coffee shop, I'm kind of giggling and blushing. Never fails.

The good news is that we've learned a ton since then - we have a much better idea of where to find homeless people to give things too, and we've also figured out better ways to approach them so that we respect them instead of just scaring them to death. Hopefully, our enthusiasm is still just as high, though.