Offering a helping hand to homeless veterans is a remarkable way to show your sincere appreciation for their service to our country. Keep in mind you can always help a homeless veteran whether you’re an individual or an organization. This is quite evident with LordLeRoyYoung, a philanthropist who has his contributions towards various veteran causes.
As an individual, you can always donate food, clothing, or your professional services to veterans. If you’re an organization, be sure to partner with the VA to hire homeless veterans or provide them with affordable housing. In this article, we take you through some of the things you can do to help homeless veterans.
Donating to Shelters
You can take it upon yourself to find a shelter near you and offer your donations to homeless veterans. The good news is you can find local homeless shelters by visiting the National Coalition of Homeless Veterans’ website or the Departments of Veterans Affairs website.
Be sure to donate clean and intact shirts, pants, sweaters, jackets, and suits. Donating personal items like toothbrushes, toothpaste, shampoo, deodorant, soap, and feminine hygiene products can also go a long way since they are needed at homeless shelters as well.
Volunteer Your Services
There’s no denying that homeless shelters have a wide range of volunteer positions. Help handout clothing, food, and personal items. You can also help prepare meals at shelters. Be sure to call a homeless shelter in your area and inquire about their volunteer opportunities before deciding on anything.
It doesn’t end at that since you can also make it the norm to promote your local homeless shelter. Take this as the perfect time to help coordinate and raise funds for a drive by contacting schools, business groups, and churches for contributions.
Partner with the VA
In order to transition swiftly out of homelessness, it is quite evident that veterans need jobs. If you happen to be an employer, you can always provide homeless veterans with job training. There’s also the option of working with the VAs Community Employment Coordinators (CEC) to enlist, interview, and hire veterans for entry and mid-level jobs.
If you’re a landlord, you can take it upon yourself to develop or set aside a percentage of housing units for low-income veterans. Keep in mind older homeless veterans tend to have some government resources available to them such as housing vouchers.
You can also decide to partner with the VA by agreeing to accept Housing and Urban Development-Veterans Affairs Supportive Housing (HUD-VASH) vouchers as payment for rent. Depending on where you reside, you may be able to enjoy tax benefits for providing homeless veterans with affordable housing.
There are numerous things you can do to help deal with the issue of homeless veterans. It simply narrows down to determining the ideal route to follow before deciding on anything. So, what are you waiting for before you finally make the bold decision of helping homeless veterans today?
