Who Better?

Once a month the church where I serve sends a team of cooks to one of the shelters where I serve.  They come and prepare a meal and sit down and eat and fellowship with the current clients of the 89 day emergency shelter.  Last evening I met a couple of new people.  Once again I met a lady who had been trying to live in this county, working hard, living paycheck to paycheck and making ends meet.  Until one day she got the phone call that the landlord she had been paying rent to had NOT been paying the mortgage on the condo she was renting.  She had 20 days notice that she would be evicted.  This story is becoming more and more prevalent; landlords who are not keeping up with their payments to the bank and renters who have no idea the property they are renting is in foreclosure.  She is one of the luckier ones as she found out before the sheriffs office arrived at her front door to post a notice; usually you only have a couple of days when that happens.  She had a couple of weeks to come up with a plan and was able to get on the waiting list at the emergency shelter. 

Who better to tell their story than the homeless person himself?  And in a lot of cities such as Washington, DC and Philadelphia you can find newspapers written by the homeless about homelessness.  In fact, just recently a homeless man won an international award for his writing contributions.  If you want to know how someone became homeless - ask them.  If you want to know how they feel about being homeless - ask them.  If you want to know how you can help them - ask them.  Who better to share their story?