A friend is homeless is bad. Very, very bad. Luckily, there are some things you can do to help a friend who is homeless.
Friendship is important in our lives, both social and spiritual. We all have friends that we spend time with and others that we don’t.
As friendship goes beyond just being about sharing a room and food, it has more meaning. It can help you feel guilty when someone else less fortunate than you isn’t getting any help from you or your organization.
It can make you feel obligated to give them your time but also know that it must be quality time to really get enough rest and recovery from the situation they are in.
This article will talk about some ways for organizations or people to help out friends who are homeless by giving them time with them.
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Offer your phone to recharge their phone
This may seem strange at first, but if your friend has a low-recharge phone, then you should offer to help them get a new battery by recharging their phone using the device you have.
You can do this by talking to them and telling them they can go out and get a battery if they need it, or they can come back to your house and you can re-charge it.
Many people have had good success giving away cell phones through service providers. If your friend does not have a good credit card or payment plan available, then issuing a debtors protection policy such as Charge Card Plus may be helpful.
It allows someone with little credit or payment stability to obtain a cell phone, but cannot use it until they pay off the debt. Once they do, they can use it to go out and find someone who will give them money to buy it.
Give them food
If your friend can not spend their money, you should give them food to eat. There are many food pantries and homeless shelters where you can donate supplies such as Meals4Mealth, pre-made bags of chips, and vanilla strike mix to make a difference in their daily lives.
Many cities offer food donations throughout the year, so getting involved is not a one-time event. Building supplies and food collection sites are other ways to help provide food in your friend’s life. Many local churches may also have meals planned sometimes so they learn how to properly use the supplies they need to provide shelter.
Lastly, if your friend is homeless but doesn’t have any savings or debt, you should consider giving them cash.
Give them money
There are many ways to help a homeless person. Some of the most common ways to give money are: cash donations, over-the-counter medications, and/or services.
There are many places that offer free or low-cost meals and/or stored personal items (like food dishes or clothing) made available multiple times per day. Many of these sites revolve around social media, with each participant being invited to host a homeless person as a guest.
By hosting a person in your home for a night, you both gain something positive (you get to experience what it is like to be homeless) and your friend gets some closure (they get some help with their issues.)
However, these solutions should be used with proper knowledge and awareness. They should be put into place correctly so that they benefit both parties.
Help them start a job search
Once a year, most college campuses have a job fair. They’re called this because during the event, organized jobs will be available for students to fill out application forms and interviews.
My friend is homeless can usually find a few spots, so he should go to one of these events. He also can look up jobs online, so he can start the job search himself.
His friend can help him by going to localJobFairs.com and searching for jobs nearby, or by going to the job interview myself. At the interview, he can ask questions and show that he is interested in the position.
Become their mental health advocate
It is the responsibility of every person, society, and government to help those who are homeless become independent before then. There are many services that offer help with addiction or mental health issues,
The most important part of becoming an advocate is to listen. You can’t use a service or organization’s services as evidence of their ability to help you. They need to take you on as a client and see you as a person with needs.
As a health care provider, you must listen nonjudgmentally and explicitly address the needs of those with mental health and addiction problems. You must be willing to help find solutions—whether that means going to law enforcement or another source if necessary.
Create a support group with other friends
If you’re a friend to the person whose house you live in housing has a code word for when they need help. You can help out your friend by forming a support group with other friends who live with you.
Forming support groups helps heal internal pain and collective trauma and allows you to connect with other people who have similar experiences to yours. It can be difficult to get involved, though, because people are hesitant to ask, but if you could get the rest of the world to ask, what would you see in return for your invitation?
There are many ways to create a support group. You can each find a common interest that brings you together, or it may be that one person is suffering and the others are helping them find relief. You can also find anther place where people can talk about their situation and come up with ideas for how they would treat each other.
Create a program at your work for homeless friends to use
In a lot of ways, homeless people need help more than anyone else.
They can’t get or keep jobs, they don’t have a place to meet friends, and they’re often alone.
That’s why it’s important to create an effort to help them meet other people, find jobs, and get off the streets.
It doesn’t have to be large or expensive, and you can do it all by yourself. All you need is the willingness to try something new and someone to show you are unable to do this on your own.
If you know a friend is homeless, then you can try helping them by giving them housing an opportunity.
Help them create an apartment search plan
It’s critical for a friend who is homeless to create their own plan for how to get out of their situation. This includes identifying sources of income, developing a timeline for their recovery, and figuring out how to live together while they figure it out.
Many times, friends are hesitant to put so much effort into helping their friend because they don’t want to be responsible for getting them back into the housing market. However, without home ownership protections in place, friends would be hard pressed to find a roommate or two and cover the expenses.
There are several ways this can happen. One way is for a friend to go into housing assistance themselves and obtain an apartment by themselves. Another way is for a friend to apply with an assistance agency and have the apartment supplied by them.