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HomeAid Plans Homelessness Awareness Month With Series of Events

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HomeAid America, a building industry charity and one of the nation’s largest builders of housing for the homeless, is spending the entire month of November holding events and undertaking activities to highlight and help to end hunger and homelessness in this country. The annual event is called HomeAid’s Homelessness Awareness Month.

“Homelessness remains a huge problem in this country,” said Peter Simons, CEO of HomeAid America, the national charity that was founded 27 years ago as a way for the building industry to give back to the community by addressing the issue of homelessness.  According to the National Law Center on Homelessness, every year alone over 3.5 million Americans experience homelessness, and well over 1 million of them are children.  The causes of homeless are many, including job loss, medical crisis, domestic abuse, alcohol or drug addiction, and post-traumatic stress syndrome in veterans.  It is estimated that 80% of the homeless are only situational and can be moved back to self-sufficiency.

“For the richest country in the world to allow so many to go unfed and unsheltered is a national tragedy, and one we can do something about,” said Simons.  “HomeAid’s Homelessness Awareness Month is a time to focus on this problem, have a genuine discussion about solutions, and take action to get this societal problem solved once and for all.”

With 15 out of HomeAid’s 17 chapters expected to participate in the month-long effort, HomeAid is developing a calendar to help coordinate activities between chapters, focusing the five calendar weeks in November on 1) homeless youth, 2) veterans, 3) homeless families, 4) hunger, and 5) chronic homelessness. A major social media campaign will be launched on Facebook and on Twitter, using hashtags #areyouaware, #endhomelessness, and #takeactiontoday.  This will make it easier for HomeAid chapters to localize national statistics. Some of the specific events and activities that are planned for the month include:

Nov 1—HA Orange County begins month long “30 ways in 30 days” campaign of activities

Nov 1—HA San Diego begins month long “30 ways in 30 days” campaign of activities

Nov 1—HA Houston begins Picture this Display of photos taken by homeless kids at Angel Reach

Nov 1—HA Southern Nevada begins 2-week food drive

Nov 1—HA Washington DC beings month long Care Kit distribution

Nov 1—HA Sacramento begins month long blanket drive

Nov 1—Stearns Lending begins month long “Lending Hands” program with 7 HA Chapters

Nov 3—HA Atlanta participates in Health and Housing Innovation Forum with United Way

Nov 3—HA Inland Empire conducts a Care Kits Day with Pardee Homes (TRI Pointe Homes)

Nov 4—HA Puget Sound conducts a Care Kits Day with Bank of America volunteers

Nov 5—HA Northern Virginia conducts annual toy drive for homeless kids

Nov 14—HA Colorado begins 4-day assembly and delivery of Care Kits to shelters

Nov 15—HA Northern California conducts toy drive with BIA Bay Area PASS

Nov 18—HA Twin Cities conducts Care Kits Day with Bank of America volunteers

Nov 19—HA Portland event with ProBuild to collect hygiene items for local shelters

Nov 29—HA Hawaii participates in Giving Tuesday as part of its weekly calendar of events

For a complete listing of HomeAid HHAW events, visit: http://www.homeaid.org/hham2016

ABOUT HOMEAID AMERICA 

HomeAid is a leading national non-profit provider of housing for homeless families and individuals, founded in Southern California in 1989.  Through the generosity of builders, their trades and their suppliers, HomeAid has completed 450 multi-unit housing projects nationwide at a value of more than $210 million, of which nearly 50 percent—over $100 million—has been donated by the building industry. HomeAid currently has 50 additional projects in development across the country. HomeAid has added over 8,500 beds in facilities helping the homeless through HomeAid’s network of 17 active chapters in 12 states across the country. These beds have been used by over 250,000 previously homeless people over HomeAid’s history.  For more information about HomeAid, call 1-888-3HOMEAID or visit www.homeaid.org.

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