50 Practical Ways You Can Help the Homeless
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1. BECOME AN EXPERT
If you encounter many homeless people and want to be a help to them, you need to become an expert. Yes, you can become an expert! With a little research and some hard work, you can learn all there is to know about the resources available to the homeless in your area.
For example, do you know where the local shelters are; and how about the check-in times at the shelters? Do you know if someone seeking shelter needs an ID to be accepted for the night? Who can help with food in your area? Are there any soup kitchens? What days and hours are they open?
Learn everything you possibly can about these and other common questions that the homeless have. You may even want to write them down and organize them. When you are fully equipped with this knowledge, you will be a huge help to people who need to know where help is available.
I am not suggesting that you (or I) can be an expert at solving everyone’s problems. What I am saying is that we can become knowledgeable about all the various resources in our area and that will give us the ability to have answers when most people have none.
If you live in a big city, there are probably resources nearby. If you live in a rural community, you will want to learn what is available in a 50-100-mile radius.
The following is a list of questions that you could find answers to.
• Where can someone turn for clothing needs? What days are these places open? What hours?
• Which churches aid the homeless? What kind of assistance do they offer?
• Is there a church or organization that will provide emergency hotel stays?
• Is there an organization in town that will help with rental assistance or electric bills?
• Where are the shelters? Who do they accept? What is required for entry?
• Are there long-term rehab facilities nearby? Who do they accept. What is required for entry?
• Are there any transitional housing units available? Where are they?
• Where is the local health department? What are their hours of operation?
• Are there any day-labor or temporary employment agencies? What is required for employment?
• Where is the county housing authority? What days and hours do they accept applications? What documents and information is needed when filling out these applications?
• Are there any private landlords who will help someone in need with low rent or assistance with the down payment?
• Is there a local soup kitchen? What days and hours do they operate?
• Is there a food pantry? What days and hours do they operate?
• Where is the nearest Continuum of Care organization for the homeless? How can they assist?
• Where is the closest domestic violence shelter? How do you contact them?
• Where can someone take showers, and do their laundry?
• Where does a person go in your community to file for disability?
• Where does a person go in your community to file for food assistance?
If you will arm yourself with the answers to the above questions, and more, you will be a big help to many people. Plus, you won’t feel completely helpless when someone asks you for help. You will be able to give real answers and point people in the right direction.
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About the Book
Have you driven past someone standing at an intersection with a sign that reads “homeless, anything helps”? Did you want to help but just didn’t know what to do or where to start?
In Fifty Practical Ways You Can Help the Homeless, author Travis Sharpe answers those questions. He presents fifty practical ways you can help someone who is experiencing homelessness. These insightful tips offer a valuable guide for those who want to reach out for the first time or the person who desires to take their assistance for someone a little further.
It focuses on helping individuals with tangible needs like food, water, and shelter as well as other needs like finding a job or learning how to use technological and other community resources. But Sharpe also gives a reminder that homeless individuals also need a helping hand of the heart, soul, and mind, and sharing the gospel message of Christ can also buttress their efforts to find stability.
Fifty Practical Ways You Can Help the Homeless puts Sharpe’s many years of experience into actionable and practical steps you can use now to be a blessing to someone in need.
About the Author
Travis Sharpe has devoted his life to ministering to the homeless and proclaiming the Gospel of Jesus Christ. He is most passionate about helping people in pain and leading them into a relationship with Jesus Christ. After receiving Christ as his savior in 1994, he soon sensed God’s calling to become a preacher. It was during his first year of Bible college that he had his first interaction with a small group of homeless men and women. That encounter changed the course of his life and ministry.
Throughout his four years of college, he led a homeless ministry that grew each year. After his marriage to April in 1998, they applied and were accepted as missionaries with Baptist Missions to Forgotten Peoples, Inc. In 2001 they began the Garden City Rescue Mission in Augusta, Georgia, and led that ministry until they sensed another calling in 2009.
With a desire to minister to homeless and displaced persons on a global scale, Travis began Unsheltered International in 2011. Under his leadership, this new ministry now reaches needy people in more than a dozen states. In 2015 the first international ministry was started in the Philippines. Unsheltered International Philippines has a staff that ministers daily to street children and homeless families.
Travis holds a master’s degree in pastoral theology from Victory Baptist College and a doctorate degree in pastoral counseling from Andersonville Theological Seminary. He travels extensively throughout the US and foreign countries, speaking in missions, conferences, and revivals. He regularly answers the call to assist churches and missionaries who want to learn more about homeless ministry.
For the Sharpes, ministry is a family affair. His two children, Hunter and Sarah, are very much involved in the daily work with their mom and dad. As a family, the Sharpes live overseas several months each year. Home base is a small farm in Logan, Alabama. They are members of Temple Baptist Church in Cullman, Alabama.
When he is not on the mission field, Travis enjoys bass fishing, especially in rivers and creeks. Give him a kayak and a fishing pole, and he might disappear for several days!
Contact Travis Sharpe:
Unsheltered International
P. O. Box 2625
Cullman, AL 35056
travis@unsheltered.org
www.unsheltered.org