Why Contributing Now is More Important Than Ever 

It is always important to contribute to your community, especially when it comes to aiding those less fortunate than you are.  So, this is not to say that anytime before the pandemic is invalid, however, COVID-19 brought more than just a health crisis. It dragged along an economic and hunger crisis as well. Both of which immediately and directly affected homeless populations across the US. The national shutdown affected areas most people would not even have considered. Parking lots, parks, public bathrooms, shower opportunities, homeless shelters, and food distribution centers all shutdown. Each one of those provided a basic and essential need for someone experiencing homelessness, most of which were lost back in March and are currently still struggling to become available again.

The economic crisis has played a huge role in preventing the resources’ return to normal as well. Funding has drastically decreased to keep food distributions and shower opportunities afloat. However, the biggest part that the economic crisis has played has been the drastic rise in unemployment. California going from 3.9% in January of 2020 to 16.4% just a few months later in April. Companies went bankrupt and employees got laid off in massive quantities in what was such a short amount of time after the country shut down.  The US government issued stimulus checks however, this was not enough to sustain Americans through now almost a year of a pandemic.

With these factors in mind, homelessness is reasonably expected to reach a new high in 2020. Research by Columbia University found that homelessness is expected to increase 40-45% this year due to the several ongoing crises. You may not have known someone who had been experiencing homelessness before, however, within the chaos experienced in 2020 it could very much be a family friend, a neighbor, or even yourself who joins the aforementioned statistic. This possibility demonstrates what so many others around you may be witnessing or experiencing themselves and why taking a second to contribute anything you can will make such a huge difference. Even if it isn’t by donating money, you can volunteer to hand out food or donate extra masks or cans you may already have at home. Now is the time to step up and give whatever you can, because now is when it matters. Just think, what would you want people to do if you were to suddenly be thrust into homelessness?