Sadly, nothing could be further from the truth.
Why then, do we hear nothing about the continuing plight in Haiti? The country is still a pile of rubble, cholera and other diseases are at epidemic levels, the people still live in extreme poverty and struggle for survival.
In the aftermath of the Haitian earthquake, you couldn’t turn on the radio, television, computer, or open a newspaper or magazine without reading stories or seeing images from Haiti. We had celebrities crawling out of the woodwork - even hosting a national telethon - to raise awareness and funds to help the people of Haiti.
Now… nothing.
I shutter to say that the same scenario is playing out right now for our homeless brothers and sisters.
Ted Williams, a (now formerly) homeless man from Columbus, Ohio was spotted by a reporter from the Columbus Dispatch. He was panhandling at an interchange off of I-71 holding a sign stating that he had a “God-given gift of voice” and had “fallen on hard times.”
The reporter stopped, filmed Mr. Williams, posted the video to YouTube and the rest of the story has been playing out at a fever pitch from local news, to national morning shows, to the late night circuit.
Much like the situation in Haiti, in the first few hours since Mr. Williams was “discovered,” the media have jumped on the story like white on rice.
Mr. Williams got his big break. It’s been an incredible story of hope, perseverance, redemption and second chances.
I fear it is also a tragic example of society’s painfully short attention span and symptomatic of our addiction to instant gratification.
You see, Mr. Williams is a representative of America’s homeless population. His story of redemption is inspiring, but what gets lost in his story is the fact that there are still thousands of men, women and children living on the streets - families like yours and mine. There are thousands of people just like him - talented, intelligent, willing to work, clean and sober (though we’ve recently learned he is still struggling to keep it that way) - who just need help, someone to care… a second chance.
It is for this reason that I so admire the work of Mark Horvath from We Are Visible (@WeAreVisible on Twitter) and Shay Kelley from Project 50/50, two people who I have had the privilege of meeting, getting to know, and working with over the past several months.
Ted Williams could be the poster child for We Are Visible. The organization is dedicated to connecting the homeless to each other, to resources, and to the world by leveraging social networks and the real-time Internet. And Horvath is uniquely qualified to see it succeed. He, too, was homeless for a time.
Think about it, a video posted on YouTube was the catalyst to Williams being bombarded with opportunities to reconstruct his life. He went from being an unknown homeless panhandler, to an overnight sensation all because of a single video posted online.
Horvath hopes that We Are Visible will be the platform to produce hundreds more stories like Ted Williams’, though you can be sure they won’t get near the fanfare. But the point isn’t to generate a feel-good story for the evening news. Lives can be, will be, and are being changed because of what Horvath is doing.
Similarly, Shay Kelley just completed the first chapter of her Project 50/50 campaign in which she traveled to all 50 states in 50 weeks, living in her old blue pickup truck, “Bubba,” accompanied by her dog, Zuzu.
Kelley’s objective was to collect 10,000 canned food items during a national door to door food drive. Despite being alone on the road, she surpassed that goal and also hosted a sock drive that generated more than 4,000 pairs of socks for homeless Americans. Kelley gave away hundreds of pounds of clothing, and collected dozens of new pairs of shoes. She distributed thousands of hygiene products and gave away enough camping gear to keep dozens of people warm and dry as they try to survive an outdoor life.
Kelly will be embarking on her nationwide campaign again this year, only this time she will be joined by her husband Shane, whom she married in late 2010.
Kelley helps sustain and provide hope and comfort to the homeless, and Horvath is providing them a platform and a voice.
The next step is to get businesses into the fold, providing employment opportunities for people who are qualified and willing to work, but find themselves homeless. Because of incorrect perceptions, there is a tendency to discount the number of employable people there are who are homeless.
In a recent Yahoo! Finance article the number of people who have been unemployed for more than 27 weeks is on the rise and unemployment figures aren’t getting much better. Even those with a nice “safety net,” are finding themselves jobless, facing foreclosure, and having dwindling chances of finding employment. All of those factors lead to formerly “middle class” professionals on the brink of or currently experiencing homelessness.
I truly believe that businesses can be part of the solution. Perhaps the hospitality industry is most well-suited to pioneer such a movement. Hotels have built-in potential to offer room and board to employees as part of their compensation package.
Before you roll your eyes or shriek, “That’s ridiculous!,” think about this:
When my wife and I took our honeymoon in Jamaica, the resort we stayed at housed resort staff. They lived on the premises. They were never late for work, always well-rested, and grateful to be working for a company that cared about them! Loyalty is a good thing, right?
That’s just the tip of the iceberg…
What do you think? How can we break the cycle of poverty and homelessness? What are you doing to help? What is your company doing to help?
