Imagine your first night being homeless. Maria* e-mailed us last week, pleading for help:
Can you help me? I spent my first night homeless last night, it was cold and scary. I am a twenty eight year old woman, and I don’t have an address or a phone right now, so finding work is very hard. I need advice, or help.
I need to know where the safe places to sleep are so I don’t get hurt. I was so scared last night that someone was going to hurt me or rob me. I’m so tired, too, I kept waking up at every sound because I was so scared.
I’m hungry too. I haven’t eaten since yesterday and then it was only half a cookie. Please tell me where I can go to get some food, to get dry and warm, to sleep safely at night. Please. I’m so scared.
Maria’s experience is frightening, but not unusual. Thanks to friends like you, when she had no one else to turn to, she could turn to Portland Rescue Mission. We’re able to offer her a place of safety. We can give her a hot meal and some comfort. We can give her hope and guide her to help.
Thanks for helping us give hope to Maria — and hundreds more people like her — this Christmas.
*Name has been changed.