When you give 'em shelter, they still need a place to sleep

One of the issues surrounding the dilemma of homeless people becoming 'homed' is in maintaining their new domiciles. Think about it, you take someone who's lived in either communal or group dorm residency and throw them alone in a place their supposed to be responsible for.

Many times I've seen people live for months on cold bare linoleum floors with nothing more than sheets and blankets. Food for thought...some furniture stores regularly have damaged goods sales to get rid of scratched items.

Rather than let the chance go to waste, purchasing a bed or couch at reduced price and having it dropped off at a local service provider offers a complete tax write off. If you're going to donate over $200.00 a year, why not make it count?

Beats having to track all those shirts people try to get written off from Grandpa's funeral.

Cost isn't cheap for anyone

One of the more understandable aspects of change that affect someone coming out of homelessness is the lack of materialism in later years. Usually there's a transitional period of around 18-24 months that someone 'adjusts' to in dealing with new responsibilities they didn't have prior.

Money management is the biggest. Getting past the initial desire to spend even $20.00 on one's self rather than save, when there's never been $20.00 left to spend after bills are taken care of...which were never taken care of before. It's a good reason for case managers to introduce some form of directbuy for these new consumers to learn about to save more of their bottom line.

The joy of an unlocked phone

Sometimes, I wonder where people come up with these new fangled ideas and gizmodoodles like unlocked phone.

If I had an unlocked phone, I'd be wantin' ta know where my key was to lock it. Ya never know when some hooligan'll jump up through the chow line and try ta steal your chirpin' phone from ya, whether at butter knife point of not!

Products of no use to the homeless...or not?

Someone asked me recently about the potential use of HDMI cables by homeless people. Ironically, you'd be surprised that in fact there ARE some homeless that would find these items beneficial!

You've got your average couch surfer. With a set of cables, he or she'd be readily welcomed in a home kept by someone not having enough sense to have their own set, should the cat choose to bite through them.

You've got the campers outside Ol' Man Jones' farm, with the coax cable strung from the barn to behind the haystack they're hiding behind. With a new set of cables, they'd be able to let the farmer know when the best time to sow his seeds would be next.

Are you planning on making the big dive?

If you've been living 'out on the range', chances are you've gotten the urge to cuddle up to something warm and cozy on those lonely knights. That being the case, make it legal like and take a look at some wedding rings.

Honestly I can't say that there's more of a slice of America that's more apt to succomb to the call of matrimony than the homeless. It's never an inopportune time, things are always looking up, and generally a relationship is guaranteed never to get worse than when you meet when your totally down on your luck and in the gutter.

Feel the love...after you feel the slip of the ring on your finger.

Sleep well in a platform bed

Are you tired of sleeping on cold dank concrete? Are you itching for the relief of freedom from twigs, leaves, and branches? Are your knees feeling the pain from getting up off the asphalt with too few pads of newspaper underneath them?

Friend, it's time you to peruse the offerings of platform beds available to you. Mattresses that are cool in the summer and warm in the winter. Mattresses without caustic chemicals or cancer causing material.

Pure. Clean. Like you wanna sleep and be.

Car Angel: Recycling For A Higher Purpose

Car Angel (www.carangel.com) is a non-profit company that has produced and distributed over 2.4 million videos to both kids and teens since opening.

If you've ever seen signs by non profits stating "donate car", chances are you haven't been able to readily check up and confirm directly how your gift of charitable giving would be used. With Car Angel Ministries, you can go online to their site and see firsthand the number of ways these gifts are used and the different types of lives they'll impact.