Hotel Vagabond
by John on May.29, 2007, under Personal
This past weekend, while out and about running errands, Ann and I stopped for some lunch. While we were eating, I saw outside a salvation army “Family Superstore” sign and thought: why are they selling clothes that people donated to them? Shouldn’t they give them to people who need them instead? Ann brought up how the salvation army uses some of the donated money to put the top people in the organization up in large houses. This led inevitably into my wondering what charities you could trust to do with your donation what you’re expecting them to.
Towards the end of the conversation, though, an idea came to me. Several times my partner Brian and I have talked about various socio-economic issues, one of them being homeless and jobless people and their plight. It’s very hard to break OUT of that cycle because it’s difficult to find work when you don’t have a home and nigh impossible to find a home if you can’t find work. Add to that the difficulty in being able to bathe and likely not having clean clothes – it makes it real hard to get gainful employment.
My thought / idea, was to have not just a homeless shelter but a homeless hotel of sorts, providing clean upscale accomodations, providing clean new clothes (suit?), haircuts , doctors clinic, etc plus providing assistance in finding a job suitable for their particular skills. Sure it’d likely cost a lot of money to create, and sure it’d probably cost significant money to operate, but think of the good it could do to help break people out of a cycle that is difficult for them to escape on their own.
I’ve not thought out much of the fine details, just the overall premise. It’d be a cool, rewarding, project to work on someday, that’s for sure.
[tags] Homeless, Salvation Army, Charity [/tags]
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May 29th, 2007 on 3:37 pm
That will only happen once people quit being so fargin’ greedy, bud. It would be a total monetary loss, at least at the start and likely throughout, and thus would have to be done by someone with the money who did not mind “losing” it. If I had the means, I would do it in a heartbeat!
May 29th, 2007 on 3:45 pm
That’s if you look at it as a business – as a business it would be a total monetary loss but that’s not how it should be looked at. It is as much a charity as it is anything else – one that attempts to help SOLVE the problem, rather than just perpetuate it.
May 29th, 2007 on 8:00 pm
The Salvation Army does give clothes to the needy through a “voucher” system. Anybody who comes in needing clothes is given a voucher to shop at the thrift store to get what they need (this includes furniture, too). They get first pick, basically. TSA gets so many clothing donations, we could probably clothe every single person in the city. The rest of the clothes are sold at a discount price, which further helps those in need threefold. First, it provides jobs to those who might not otherwise be able to find suitable employment elsewhere. Secondly, the money raised from the sale of the merchandise is put back into the pot to help people in need in other areas. Thirdly, it helps people who may not need free clothes, but who can’t afford retail store prices, so they are able to purchase discount clothing at an affordable price.
May 29th, 2007 on 8:03 pm
Believe it or not, even after this, there are usually many leftover items which are usually baled and sent to 3rd world countries who need them. Also, the items in disrepair are sold to 3rd parties as scraps for rags, etc.
May 30th, 2007 on 9:50 am
Chris,
I don’t doubt that the Salvation Army has some good reason for the store I mentioned in my post. I was merely re-telling the conversation points that led to my idea for “Hotel Vagabond”, and not really trying to attack Salvatiton Army ( I don’t personally know enough about the organization to attack or criticize it much.)
I think you’re focusing too much on that aspect of the story (very much secondary to the main point of the post) and losing sight of what is important – helping people by not only giving them a place to sleep, but offering help in re-integrating into society.