Advocate

Also try the following sites:

The 2000 U.S. Conference of Mayor’s Report on Hunger and Homelessness http://www.usmayors.org/uscm/news/press_releases/documents/hunger_release.htm
The National Alliance to End Homelessness: http://www.naeh.org The National Low Income Housing Coalition: http://www.nlihc.org The National Student Campaign Against Hunger and Homelessness: http://www.nscahh.org
The National Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty: http://www.nlchp.org
Homes for the Homeless/Institute for Children and Poverty: http://www.homesforthehomeless.com/hfh
The Better Homes Fund: http://thebetterhomesfund.org
Universal Living Wage Campaign: http://www.universallivingwage.org
To find out other ways to help homeless people: http://earthsystems.org/ways/list.html

Follow your local news. Read your local newspaper regularly to keep abreast of what is happening to homeless and low-income people and the policies that affect them in your community.

Take advantage of teachable moments. Circumstances may vary, but we can generally trust that a person who spends his or her days and nights without a permanent home faces obstacles making it difficult to fit into mainstream society’s ideas of how one should look, act, sound, and smell. When you see others behaving in insulting ways toward someone who is homeless, take advantage of the opportunity to share your compassionate and informed view on the difficult circumstances and obstacles facing people experiencing homelessness. You may be able to take the damaging arrow aimed at a person who is homeless and turn it into something constructive.

Talk to children about homelessness. For book lists, video suggestions, lesson plans, and teaching materials about homelessness, contact NCH at (202) 737-6444, or visit (http://www.nationalhomeless.org/fmn2001/education.html).

Read. Check out some of the many books published about homelessness in America. A few recommendations to get you started are listed below:

Reference:

Helping America’s Homeless: Emergency Shelter or Affordable Housing? Martha Burt, Laudan K. Aron, & Edgar Lee, Urban Institute Press, 2001. (To order, call (202) 261-5687 or toll-free (877) 847-7377)

Homelessness in America, Jim Baumhol ed., Oryx Press, 1996. (To order, call NCH at (202) 737-6444)

Narrative:

Travels with Lizbeth, Lars Eighner, Fawcett Books, 1994.

Tell Them Who I Am, Elliott Liebow The Free Press-a division of Macmillan, Inc., 1993.

Rachel and Her Children: Homeless Families in America, Jonathan Kozol, Random House, 1988.

· Educate Others. You have a great capacity to educate not only yourself, but others as well. Friends, family, and people within your community will benefit greatly from a compassionate and informed point-of-view. As you learn more about the problem of homelessness, share what you find out with those around you. In some cases, you may learn as much from the reflections of those around you as from a book. Whatever you do, don’t let the insights you gain stop with you! Opening up a dialogue is an essential first step we can all take in confronting this difficult problem.

For more information on how to get involved, contact:

Housing for the Homeless Consortium
Attn: Lisa Bondy, SDHDA
P.O. Box 1237, Pierre, SD 57501
605.773.3445
lisab@sdhda.org