Time and time again, I find that TELLING YOU about something seems to be exactly the kick in the pants I need to do something about it. I think part of it is that it puts the task into perspective: it seems…odd…to spend an hour writing a post about why I can’t make myself take 15 minutes to handle a chore.
Anyway, this morning I tackled all the cleaning supplies and baggies/foils from my parents’ old house. I’d kept thinking I needed to GO THROUGH THEM and COLLATE and COMBINE and DECIDE WHAT TO KEEP and so forth, but all I REALLY needed to do was cram them all into the same places where I keep back-ups of those supplies. When I run out of quart-sized baggies, I will find my parents’ partially-used box of quart-sized baggies on the back-up baggies/foil shelf; when I run out of laundry detergent, I will find their partially-used bottle on the back-up laundry supplies shelf. This issue will now automatically self-resolve with time.
It took maybe 10 minutes to handle it, and that counts the part where I dealt with the bins/boxes the items had been in. And now an Oppression Spot is just GONE, and also I have eliminated a Housecleaner Anxiety Area (“They will think I am hoarding cleaning supplies!!”). Why did I wait months? Brains are a treat.
Additionally, I noticed that every single time I went up the stairs, I saw a spot on the landing floor that made me feel bad for not damp-mopping the entire house. So this morning I took a few squares of toilet paper, dampened them in the sink, and cleaned that one spot. It took less than one minute, and now it doesn’t bother me EVERY SINGLE TIME I GO UP THE STAIRS.
Abrupt subject change!
Are any of you already familiar with a charity that addresses homelessness in the United States? (Ideally an organization that doesn’t combine this pursuit with religious evangelism.) We’re doing a family project to try to familiarize the kids with making charitable donations (choosing an area of concern/interest, investigating the charity on Charity Navigator, etc.), and each kid is picking a charity for us to send a donation to. William has chosen United States homelessness as his category, but is having trouble choosing from there—mostly, I think, because he is kind of overwhelmed doing college online in a house of seven people, and would like to be done with this additional project now. It also may be that his scope is too broad and that he needs to narrow it down to a particular program in a particular state—but he would prefer something national. I am going to look into this myself, but I love having other people’s recommendations.
I’ve found the best charities/organizations like that are smaller local ones. Maybe do a google search just for a homeless shelter or homeless outreach program just in your nearest city? I can think of several in my local area (MA). I have this (pretty unfounded) belief that the larger the charity organization the larger the chance of selfish misuse of funds.
The HUD website can help you find a specific homeless shelter in your geographic area, if you want to get very local.
https://www.hud.gov/findshelter
I agree with going small/local for homelessness. He’ll have a much bigger impact. There is unfortunately not a great systemic effort to solve this issue at the federal level.
It’s not a perfect fit but the International Rescue Committee is providing aid for asylum seekers on the US-Mexico border — giving them food, Covid tests, and transport.
They also provide support to refugees outside the US.
Sounds like a very neat family project. I’d love to hear more if you are open to sharing! It sounds like what William might be seeking is the National Coalition for the Homeless. https://nationalhomeless.org/ Lots of great national advocacy work is done by this org. That said, it depends on what William would like to focus on with the donation, if he is seeking policy solutions and support for the “root cause” issue of homelessness, this may be of interest. If he is more interested in providing immediate shelter, food, etc.. then the other comments are correct – local is the way to go! Either way – thanks for raising great humans that are thinking of others! :-)
This is almost verbatim what I was coming online to say.
I agree with others that local organizations would be the most directly involved with addressing homelessness, whether it’s shelters (long-term, short-term, DV shelters, emergency shelters, etc) or orgs that do outreach or advocacy work. Nationwide, Goodwill and United Way come to mind; for example, Goodwill does job training and assistance for people with economic insecurity, which of course relates to homelessness as well. In NYC there are dozens of organizations, such as Coalition for the Homeless, the Doe Fund, Bowery Mission, NYC Rescue Mission – I am sure many cities and towns have similar options.
This may be too cutesy, and also does not have complete information on Charity Navigator, but is the only national one I know of: https://www.projectnightnight.org/
(but yes: LOCAL. Go local – or proximate, if one is in a suburb basically without homelessness – for this issue. Your time, your donation, your personal interactions mean a lot.)
(oh! and! YES to fixing small problems that are making you feel large-scale guilty. No, you do not need to wet-mop the whole house! And congratulations on everything fitting in the backup-storage locations such that those problems will simply go away with time!!!)
HOORAY for eliminating two problem areas! You rock! (Brains ARE a treat.) (No.)
I really like Family Promise (https://familypromise.org/). They serve whole homeless families (of any composition) and house families together rather than separating moms from dads as many shelters do. We have been involved with the one in our city for years and they do a huge amount of good.
National AIDS Housing Coalition (national aids housing.org) is a great organization that provides advocacy on behalf of people living with HIV who are experiencing homelessness or housing instability.
Family Promise might interest him. It has local branches but also a national org. http://familypromise.org/ I found them because our local homeless org, RAIHN, that we have worked with, has joined with Family Promise.
“Brains are a treat” HAHAHAAAAaugh yes.
I do agree that local for homeless impact does tend to work very well (although seeing as I live in the Metro DC area, there is both abundant homeless people and many local organizations to help, which may not be the case everywhere).
Family Promise is a great option. Covenant House is a national org that is geared specifically toward homeless youth (including LGBTQ kids: https://www.covenanthouse.org/homeless-issues/lgbtq-homeless-youth)
https://cloudcoveredstreets.org
They are based in Phoenix but want to expand across the US. They are working on getting mobile shower/laundry trailers in every city. The trailers also have computers that people can use to look for jobs, update resumes, contact family, etc.
I, too, get stuck on tasks that keep me from doing other things. I have to remind myself not to beat myself up when finally getting said task done and realizing it took very little time. Or it can become a whole new cycle of self recrimination. I find it much easier to extend grace to others than to myself.
I find that I tend to deal with “issues/chores” once I vocalize them to the world at large. It feels ridiculous, but it seems to work. Otherwise, I keep putting it off.
This is local to me, maybe there is something like it near you? I just love what they’re doing for homeless veterans!
https://www.veteranscommunityproject.org/
The charity we’ve been giving to is run through our county. They help people pay their rent and mortgage. Since I doubt people outside of our state would be interested in donating to this local charity maybe he could try looking for something similar via your county or a nearby county?
Look to see if there is a Buy Nothing group in your area on Facebook. Mine is very active and people give away opened products all the time. Plus you never know what you can find that someone is giving away!
Yikes commented on the wrong thread. Hopefully you figured out I was referring to all the stuff you have.
I have found the following my city councilor on Facebook has made me aware of what’s being done to support the unhomed population in my city. Even though my city is very conservative, I have an awesome councilor. Maybe pick one who is more in line with your views politically if your actual councilor is lame, as many here are. Also our mayor has some great posts as well.
Love every part of this post. I think I am going to begin to randomly incorporate ‘brains are treats’ into my life as often as possible ;).
Also, we are ‘angst twins’ because I just DID a similar thing. I told a friend how emotionally draining it was to have a cluttered corner of my bedroom only to realize I was absolutely in control of the corner. I then spent an enjoyable hour relocating the various random items (so many empty bins that needed to be stored after my last episode of organizing) and I had a few pleasant moments of, ‘so that’s where that went!’ and ‘I forgot we had that.’ Even better, I get a little positive thrill when I open my door and spy my clutter free corner.
Brains really are treats.
I love when little jobs like that are out of the way. So satisfying! Sometimes I’ll think about doing a little job forever, and then when I do it, it takes like 10 minutes, and I wonder why I put off so much satisfaction for so long!
Nothing like getting those small chores done so you can feel the joy of having done them. I’m all for a little progress every day rather than a huge pivot all at once. As for charities, I look for local causes just because I want to feel like I’ve helped my fellow neighbors.
A few years ago, a client of mine (whose thought/research processes/standards I deeply respect) vetted several national orgs that focus homelessness for their big annual fundraiser, and they decided on the National Alliance to End Homelessness. Super pragmatic, policy-based work, and I love that they treat homelessness as the solvable problem it is.
I agree with so many commenters here: Homelessness is an issue that is best handled at the local level. While it is a problem experienced nationwide, each community’s needs and challenges are individual. He might even find more fulfillment in helping to solve a problem locally.
https://community.solutions/press/built-for-zero-featured-by-dan-heath-on-the-armchair-expert-podcast/
This is a podcast by Dan Heath of Built for Zero – could be of interest in this discussion!
Hurrah! Yeah you!! :) And I really, really like the cleaning the ONE THING that makes you feel bad!! (I don’t think to do this – I either cave and do it all, or continue to feel anxious/guilty – thank you!)
Covenant House deals with homeless youth if that’s an area William is interested in supporting: https://www.covenanthouse.org/donation-options/donate-today
Someone may have previously mentioned this but the most direct way to give to the homeless of your area is probably your local Mutual Aid group. Have him Google “mutual aid” and see if it seems like a good fit for him. I’ve been helping out with ours, and while they can be a bit disorganized as they are entirely volunteer run, there is zero overhead and money and supplies go to directly to those who need them.
Habitat for Humanity addresses housing instability. It’s a great group to be involved in because they are just as interested in your time as your money. Building houses, working in a resale store, volunteering organizational skills. I sat on a regional board of directors for a number of years and can tell you first hand that Habitat changes lives. Many of our homeowners had experienced homelessness at some point or struggled to find affordable housing. Habitat sells low cost homes to people with no interest loans. Homeowners are required to contribute sweat equity.
This is one that address youth/young parent homelessness – http://www.wakingthevillage.org/tubman-house