Five nights a week I man the Burbank Winter Shelter‘s bus stop in the city of Glendale. About 50 or so homeless friends gather each night to be transported out of the cold weather and in to a National Guard Armory for the night. There they receive a hot meal, a warm cot, and if they want a warm shower. If you have never experienced this kind of compassion I highly recommend volunteering at a cold weather shelter in your area. Right now homeless services are taxed and we desperately need your help.

If you look real closely at the photo you’ll see a baby in a stroller. The amount of families coming into homeless shelters right now is alarming!

It’s an interesting gig with an interesting bunch of characters. Many have college educations and have just fallen on hard times. There are also a bunch of chronic homeless who for one reason or another continue to live on the streets. All are great people and I am honored to be able to help them.

It’s starting to get cold. I could sit in my car, but I would feel crazy guilty so for two to three hours I stand outside with my new friends. The benches were provided by the city of Glendale and the canopy came from PATH Achieve Glendale were I am temporarily employed as an Outreach Case Manager.

The stories will wreck even the hardest heart. I don’t think I will ever be the same – and that is a very good thing!

In January and February we will see more massive layoffs. The homeless crisis WILL GET WORSE! The government is drastically cutting funds to women and homeless services. For all the latest homeless news visit homeless.alltop.com. Only you can help, PLEASE support your local non-profit homeless services – PLEASE!

Here are a few in Los Angeles that I recommend. They are listed in no order of preference – they all help lots of people – and they all need your help!

PATH Achieve Glendale – 2/8 matching grant so for every $2 donated the grant gives $8. PAG is an awesome organization that provides all kinds of homeless services. One of the very best!

Union Rescue Mission – besides the normal homeless population they help EVERY DAY, as of last night they had 52 new families and over 100 children living at the mission. The family count is growing daily and they need your help.

Los Angeles Dream Center – LADC is the church that helped me get off the streets. Currently they are the ONLY church I know of that is taking in homeless families. Everyday new families are showing up. Words cannot express how great of an organization the Dream Center is. Truly they are a model for other faith-based organizations to follow!

Most of us these days are just one crisis away from losing everything. No one plans on being homeless. Ya never know – someday it might be you and your family at a winter shelter!

This entry was posted on Saturday, December 27th, 2008 at 2:24 pm and is filed under My Big Mouth. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.