April 2018: Institute of Global Homelessness

April 2018: Institute of Global Homelessness

They say home is where the heart is, and that's true, but a physical home sure can help a human out. What does "home" mean to you? To us, it means safety and family, solace, and refuge. To so many humans in the world, "home" doesn't exist...or maybe it's curled up on a park bench on a cold night. Maybe it's in a tent on Skid Row or a hideaway under a bridge. What we know for sure is we can do better. No human deserves to be homeless, regardless of what may have brought them to that point on their journey. 

There's a human named Shelly that I see in the area around the park by our home. Shelly lives at the park, or in the McDonald's parking lot down the street—Shelly calls any place she can find that is safe and (maybe) warm, her home. She stands with a shopping cart full of her belongings, because that's all she has in this world. A shopping cart full of the the items she needs for survival. That's it. Talk about making me insanely grateful for the home I have...And it's not that I am materialistic, it's that I am safe and secure, loved and warm. 

According to MoveForHunger.org

  • Chronic homelessness is the term given to individuals that experience long-term or repeated bouts of homelessness. The chronically homeless are often the public face of the issue, however, they make up only 15% of the entire homeless population on a given day.
  • Nearly 48,000 or 8.5% of all homeless persons are veterans
  • On a given night, nearly 20% of the homeless population had serious mental illness or conditions related to chronic substance abuse.

In April, we're committed to giving 10% off all Only Human profits to an organization that is working to solve homelessness on a global scale. Check out Institute of Global Homelessness and see what they're doing to ensure humans all over the world have a place to call home. They're building a framework that enables work to be done about homeless for all humans, around the world. 

When I see homeless humans, I often wonder where the humans are that were looking out for them. What would happen if humanity adopted a "We over me" mindset? What good would come of it? Would these humans still slip through the cracks and end up on the streets? We chose this cause, because all humans deserve a home. Help us, help them.