The Perseverance Penguin Project
All About Homelessness!
Facts, How to Help, and More!
This page will continue to be updated with more information as we learn more about homelessness. Currently, as this project started in Portland, Oregon, most of this information pertains primarily to Portland. We hope to expand the information as we learn more about other cities.
What causes homelessness?
According to the Portland Rescue Mission (www.portlandrescuemission.org), addiction, domestic violence, mental illness, job loss and underemployment, foreclosure, and post traumatic stress are common drivers of homelessness.
Let's get some numbers on these. The Portland Rescue Mission states that "68% of U.S. cities report that addiction is the most prevalent issue in the lives of homeless people," which would make stable housing difficult to manage. In a decent amount of cases, their addiction stems from grief, such as from a death of a loved one or other trauma. In addition, "nationally, 50% of homeless women and children are fleeing domestic violence." The options there would be staying in the unsafe, abusive situation or having to live with little support. In terms of mental illness, "20-25% of the homeless population suffers from chronic mental illness." Just getting out of bed every day when you have a chronic mental illness is difficult; imagine running a house while dealing with that. Post-traumatic stress also leads to issues with being able to physically or mentally handle daily tasks. So imagine how many veterans sleep on the street? "On any given night, as many as 200,000 military veterans."
On top of these causes, there are also other aspects to what causes homelessness. Even teenagers get kicked out of their houses because they get pregnant, struggle with addiction, or have a different sexual orientation or gender than what their parents want. Some teenagers choose to run away because of abuse, and the amount of these is shockingly high, as "63% of [homeless] teens have been physically or sexually abused."
After a while of being homeless, people start to lose hope and resources. They'll no longer have family or friends who are willing to support them, and they think there's no way out of homelessness.
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The information above can be found in this helpful infographic provided by the Portland Rescue Mission:
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I encourage you to read this one as well, which describes 7 myths about homelessness:
How can you help end homelessness?
According to the National Coalition for the Homeless, here's some of the best ways you can help!
Volunteer work, advocacy efforts, financial or material contributions, and continued self-education are the main categories, so let's break them down below!
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Volunteer work:
What's amazing about this one is that you can help out by doing virtually anything. Any skills you already know or skills you want to learn how to do can and likely will help. Here's some specific ideas though:
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Work at a shelter for an evening
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Clerical work like answering phones, typing and filing
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Serve food, wash dishes
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Distribute clothing
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Help build/fix houses or shelters
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Assist in job training or teach/share your hobbies with people staying at a homeless shelter
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Work with children at a homeless shelter
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Tutoring or mentoring
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Assist in events for kids, such as field trips or art nights
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Advocacy Efforts:
This involves changing the politics and language regarding homelessness. You don't have to be a well-known person to pull this off either, just someone who cares to get involved!
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Volunteer with a housing or homeless advocacy coalition
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Register people experiencing homelessness to vote
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Recognize National Homeless Persons’ Memorial Day (around Dec 21)
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Get involved with a local street newspaper
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Minimize language (your own and others') that refers to people experiencing homelessness in derogatory ways
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For example, say "people experiencing homelessness" rather than "the homeless," to emphasize that they're still people
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Financial or Material Contributions:
Fundraising is a lot of what the Perseverance Penguin Project does! Material assistance is important for fighting homelessness, so let's discuss some immediate items and services that you could contribute.
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Clean Clothing (ask your local shelter what kind of items they need though, as storage space may be an issue)
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Household goods
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Books
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Computers
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Job opportunities
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Raise funds for a program
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Give directly to people experiencing homelessness
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Talk with people experiencing homelessness, make eye contact with them, even smile if you feel comfortable (as in, don't just look away from them as if they don't exist)
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Self-education:
Even just reading this page qualifies as self-education! Teaching yourself and others more about homelessness will help combat homelessness. After all, the more you know, the more you can do.
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Follow local news and keep up with what's happening to homeless and low-income people in your community
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Talk to children about homelessness
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Read about homelessness
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Talk about it with others!
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Trust me, there's plenty more elaboration on suggestions like these in this list from the National Coalition for the Homeless:
https://www.nationalhomeless.org/publications/facts/you.pdf
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Awesome organizations to look into:
Hopefully this will help connect you to organizations where you can volunteer/donate. Or you could create your own projects/events like these to help the people experiencing homelessness in your community!
Contact us if you know someplace that should be on here!
Gather:Make:Shelter
https://gathermakeshelter.org/
"Gather:Make:Shelter works with people experiencing houselessness and poverty through collaborative, skill-building projects in creative fields."
I particularly know them for connecting with Portland artists to make bowls and homeless people to paint the bowls; the proceeds from selling the bowls then go to their projects, such as building housing.
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Outside the Frame
"We train homeless and marginalized youth to be directors of their own films and lives. A creative outlet, job skills, an audience and a sense of dignity and possibility through filmmaking."
The quote pretty much says it, but it's amazing that this organization trains homeless youth in the skills that it takes to be film directors. This film includes music videos, documentaries, and narratives. If you have a few minutes to watch, I'd recommend "Animal Control," one of the music videos on their website's "Films" page.
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Street Books
"Street Books is a bicycle-powered mobile library, serving people who live outside."
There seems to be a misconception that people experiencing homelessness are uneducated and wouldn't want to read, but this organization sure proves that wrong and I love it.
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