Featured Charity – National Alliance to End Homelessness

On December 28, 1999, our apartment burned down. The suspected cause, although not conclusive, was a laptop power adapter. At the time we had just moved into the apartment and did not have renter’s insurance. If it wasn’t for some extremely generous efforts on the part close friends, it doesn’t take much to imagine we would have ended up homeless.

Beyond that personal experience, the challenge of homelessness has always been close to me. Back when I was a “desk jockey” in the thriving, but never quite stable world of temp agency jobs in Seattle, I used to commute via ferry boat to downtown. During that time I had a friend named John who “chose” to be homeless. The impetus behind the choice had to do with a complex combination of family guilt and mistrust of the system. Occasionally I would sit with him and talk as the commuters rushed by. He would tell me of his days as a race jockey and I would relate mundane office horror stories. Usually this would happen over coffee which I brought him. Over the years these talks became a friendship, with all of the trappings of a real friendship including watching out for each other. For his own reasons he never left the streets. But what I remember most was during those conversations how we were almost invisible to the commuters rushing to and from the boats.

It’s why I understand very clearly what Mark Horvath means when he talks about invisible people. I’m glad SOBCon worked with GMC to give him a larger platform to reach out. Of all the homeless organizations that I’ve dealt with the National Alliance to End Homelessness provides real hope to those in need. Of the estimated 600,000 people in the U.S. that are homeless 40% are families, often with children, and 12% are veterans.  National Alliance to End Homelessness focuses on these groups as key to helping curb the challenge of homelessness.

It is for these reasons that we’ve chosen the National Alliance to End Homelessness as a featured charity. You can either donate through the ReveNews.org ChipIn widget below (allowing you to donate through Paypal) or directly at National Alliance to End Homelessness. It is a cause well worth considering and supporting.