Over the last couple of years I’ve had a number of fascinating conversations with homeless people. One frequent theme I hear is the problem of broken relationships. When I ask the homeless person I’m talking to whether or not they have family, they often respond that they do, but that they’re alienated from them and they won’t help them.
I mentioned this observation to Patti last week and a couple of days ago she came across an interesting article that made the same observation about homelessness. It’s entitled, “Miracle Messages Reuniting Families Experiencing Homelessness.”
The article is about a nonprofit called Miracle Messages, founded by Kevin Adler around Christmas, 2014 “when he started walking down Market Street in San Francisco asking people who were homeless if they’d like to record a holiday message for a loved one.”
At this point, the article states that Adler “was struck by how, perhaps even more than unemployment or mental illness, frayed social bonds were a primary driver of homelessness. Early on in his work someone on the street told him, ‘I never realized I was homeless when I lost my housing, only when I lost my family and friends.'” (Emphasis mine.)
Says Emilio Ramirez, deputy director of community and economic development for the city of Riverside, California, which has partnered with Miracle Messages, “Family unification is key, and an effective method of ending homelessness.”
Since its founding in 2014, Miracle Messages has helped 200 families reunite with their loved ones on the street. The organization works with cities, churches and other groups training them to do this simple task: “canvas city streets looking for homeless people and ask if there’s someone to whom they’d like to address a short video message.”
I think this is an interesting way to address homelessness and worth investigating. You can find more information about Miracle Messages here.
This post first appeared in NewCommandment.org.
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