October 10, 2010 – World Homeless Day Millions of people around the world are mobilizing to participate in the first annual World Homeless Day. Portland Rescue Mission has launched the www.1010PDX.org website as a catalyst and resource for participation in the Portland, Oregon area. We’re counting down the 10 weeks to 10-10-10 with a new…
Read MoreThis weekend’s heat will be brutal for homeless men, women and children living in cars or on the street. The Change.org blog offers these things you can offer to Help the Homeless Beat The Heat: Frozen bottled water. Try to freeze (not just chill) bottled water before handing it out. The ice will melt slowly…
Read MoreJoseph stayed at the Burnside Shelter for a few days last summer. He was from another part of the country. In Portland, Joseph was alone, hungry and struggling to get his life together. Last week, Joseph sent us a quick email to let us know how he’s doing: I wanted to thank all of you…
Read MoreFrom the “Changing the World” blog: http://walking4change.blogspot.com/2010/05/rose-by-any-other-name.html Homelessness wasn’t talked about when I was a kid. It didn’t exist as far as we knew in Connecticut. But then we were the sheltered wealthy where dirty little secrets like poverty couldn’t touch us. Even in the streets of New York where we spent almost as much…
Read MoreMost of us have never sat and eaten a meal with a homeless man or woman. But Nina did. She discovered a simple truth — homeless people are people. Not so different than you or me. From Nina, a volunteer at our Burnside Shelter: I have been volunteering at the Portland Rescue Mission the first…
Read MoreFrom the Washington Post article: Out Of The Debris, A Survival Story Photo: Difficult to believe he’s the same man. Danny Glass holds up a photo of him taken just four months ago. He was homeless, living in a tent — and nearly dead. When we first met Danny Glass, he was sitting in a…
Read MoreFrom the Oregonlive.com website: For homeless kids, Portland school and its buses are constants in a world of chaos Traffic is light and the sun still below the horizon as Penny Scrivner eases her yellow school bus to a stop in front of a Clackamas County apartment complex at 6:30 one recent morning. Baby strollers…
Read MoreFrom the Street Roots blog: The Unreality of Urban PlungesDisclaimer: The original post includes quotes of some profane language. Robert chose to be homeless for a short time, just to see what it was like. As I sat on some church steps eating a charity sack dinner, a man on a bicycle screamed at me:…
Read MoreFrom Dallas, a staff member of Portland Rescue Mission: As I was driving recently, I stopped at the light on NE Halsey and 102nd. On my left was a man holding a sign that read “Insult me for $1.00.” That man, Matt* had been a resident in our men’s New Life recovery program at one…
Read MoreWatch this insightful photojournalism piece revealing an unseen side of homelessness — families forced to live in motels to survive. From the Coalition for the Homeless in Central Florida blog: Earlier this week, Robert Cohen of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch was honored in the 2010 American Society of News Editors as a finalist for his…
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