Need help finding homeless charity...

[Lyne]

I'd like to find a truly good charity that gives the $ TO the homeless...so any suggestions?

I remember a charity mentioned somewhere on our Forum, but I forget where....I know it was HERE somewhere, unless I was dreaming?

I'm writing my poem for:

A Family's Struggles

• Lyne
• May 21, 2016
• 2
• homeless

Caring for the homeless families

and am anxious to find a charity to recommend to folks who come to my gallery!

Thanks for any help!

 

[kobaltkween]

I think the one I get emails from is pretty decent, but let me check up on them a bit. They focus on homeless youth.
Covenant House Wikipedia

It appears their head had a scandal in the 1990's, but they seem to have a decent rating on Charity Navigator. Charity Navigator seems like a decent tool in general, so you might use it on anyone else's suggestions or charities you come across.

 

[CajunBeauty]

You can always check with your local churches and sign up to volunteer for their homeless program and follow it closely to see how much of the money gets spent on the homeless. Since it's local it would be easier to keep tabs and see with your own eyes what is actually being done for them. That's what I've been looking to do where I am. I'm the type that actually has to see the homeless getting the help for me to trust those who say they are doing it. Too many phony charities even at local levels.

 

[Terre]

"Too many phony charities even at local levels." That there are.
Or ones who waste most of the money. The United Way is one where local chapters range from using 100% of the money for charity all the way down to just 2% or so. People need to check with local members to see how the branch in their area works.
Local church run groups can be a good place to look. There are two in the town I'm in and as far as I can tell most or all of the donated money goes to help people who need it. At the store I work in we see food vouchers from one of those groups and I've also seen another give checks to people to help pay their utility bills. The latter group also runs a center where people can sign up and get free clothing several times a year.

 

[Lyne]

Thanks for your input, all!

 

[CajunBeauty]

"Too many phony charities even at local levels." That there are.
Or ones who waste most of the money. The United Way is one where local chapters range from using 100% of the money for charity all the way down to just 2% or so. People need to check with local members to see how the branch in their area works.
Local church run groups can be a good place to look. There are two in the town I'm in and as far as I can tell most or all of the donated money goes to help people who need it. At the store I work in we see food vouchers from one of those groups and I've also seen another give checks to people to help pay their utility bills. The latter group also runs a center where people can sign up and get free clothing several times a year.

That's why I suggested to do some volunteer work for some of the local charities. That way you can be on the inside and actually see how they help people and where the money goes. I have had a couple of places that said that they help out the people, but when I started to volunteer to help I found out different. One of them would use the volunteers for mostly "church" events and rarely for outreach into the community and I was never asked to help out anywhere else, but at the church. Another place seemed to have stopped most of their homeless outreach altogether. I asked if we could just bring them some warm soup and blankets and they pretty much said they weren't going to waste their time doing that. Now if it's a local charity I am looking at I always volunteer first to see how much help people actually get.

 

[AlphinaNovaStar]

I rather give to honest charity than to some pan handler who is begging for money. Some of them are scam artists though.
Some charities are just trying to help one "poor" person become rich. (if you cannot guess, it is themself)