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In this country, right now, thousands more are Homeless than ever before. More than during any diaspora (Jewish, Armenian, etc), more than after any American war, more than during the plague.

It is clear that times are bad for everyone. Yet we hear that Wall Street has shelled out a mind-boggling 40% increase in bonuses on top of already embarrassing wages. We hear that the wars we are fighting have and still are making new millionaires every week. We hear that our government is very concerned about budget deficits, yet pork barrel projects are up $2.5 Billion over last year – which were up $9 Billion over the previous year.

At Push Open Doors in 2009, we received fewer contributions than we had for the past 5 years.

Push Open Doors a chartered national 501(c) 3 non profit for the benefit of the Homeless received no donations from anybody. At all.

Let me repeat and rephrase that. In 2009, Push Open Doors received NOT A SINGLE financial contribution other than from our volunteer staff, who not only donate their time, but also kick-in when supplies are needed (like ink or server costs – thank you again, friends).

ZERO

We solicited support from all the usual, generous givers, but wallets just did not open. There were no monies for us to help someone while it is freezing outside, or to stave dire food or heating needs.

•

During December, we try to make sure Homeless children have a gift, and this Holiday we couldn’t do that at all.

There was no Santa for the kids, and we felt so badly about it that one of the staff suggested taking out a loan. Well, we didn’t doing that, but we do feeling Grinchy.

We are not out to guilt you, after all, you’re reading this, so you probably care – but we do feel sad.

It is awful being homeless in the winter, and in a recession it is an absolute killer.

We wish we could help.   Can you?

Some obvious problems are:

• Bacterial contamination of found food
• Malnutrition
• Contagious disease

And then there are the “Ordinary Catastrophes” like air pollution, heat waves, hurricanes and floods that are absolute killers.

Caroline Cormier has written an excellent article for Esurio: Journal of Hunger and Poverty about Toronto Homelessness which was recently published. Here is an excerpt; please click  Cormier Article above, for the full read.

With an inextricable link existing between the growing homeless population and the severe shortage of affordable housing, the City of Toronto is facing an unprecedented challenge. While there is no viable method of measuring Toronto’s homeless population, in the last year nearly 30,000 different people were reported as users of  Toronto’s shelter system.

15,700,000 unemployed of which, 190,000 are new additional jobs in the last month

9,300,000 people working part time who would rather be working full time

808,000 Discouraged Workers – people who have given up looking for jobs

If added together, the horrendous total of people unemployed, underemployed, and no longer even bothering to try to be employed is 25,808,000

As we know, the most serious cause of homelessness is unemployment. Before the current recession, 60% of the homeless population worked and yet was  still homeless.

Because of the recession is largely a foreclosure driven catastrophe,  it is now worse than ever.

This is a slippery slope under the best of circumstances, which clearly, these are not.

We have a list of honest charitable organizations who are providing help for these brothers and sisters of ours.

Please consider supporting them as generously as you are able. It is good for the homeless, good for your community, good for the country, and it will make you feel good, too.

If you click on our Program Funding (You CAN Help!) over on the sidebar, every dollar will go to the programs that help.

We educate potential donors – such as you, reading this – about the program and we reach to networks within communities to encourage participation.

Source: Wikipedia

On the other side of the equation, Push Open Doors identifies organizations that are addressing the problem of homelessness and provides them with additional funding.

Our primary goal is to fund programs that provide help for the homeless. Everyone deserves shelter.

If our program creates awareness and inspires some people to become more involved in addressing this issue, that would be a wonderful by-product of our work.

Already there are a number of agencies serving the homeless, and many are doing tremendous work. We are not a service agency in that sense. Nor do we want to reinvent the wheel – just help it continue spinning.

Our mission is to provide additional funding for the agencies that are already making a difference.

In the early 2000′s, only 20% of homeless families ever received help in finding housing. Keep in mind that was before Katrina or this devastating recession, which has put a renewed focus on homelessness due to the mortgage foreclosure catastrophe that swelled the pool by numbers immeasurably.

As most of us know, finding suitable housing under the best of circumstances is a difficult task. When you add all the challenges that a homeless family or individual experiences, particularly the financial constraints, finding affordable housing becomes a daunting proposition.

And these are hardly the best of circumstances.

Please help us Push Open Doors.

Push Open Doors is a 501(c)3 and all gifts are tax deductible