Parking For Social Change?

Volunteers Give Homeless Kids Holiday Cheer

December 22, 2011 By Molly Carter Leave a Comment

Macys.com volunteers happily gave their time to make the holidays a little bit brighter for families facing the challenges of homelessness. The group visited Hamilton Family Center, a United Way partner which provides shelter, youth programming and support services to homeless families in San Francisco.

Volunteers wrapped holiday gifts for kids, and delivered more than 100 winter coats, making this winter much warmer for many children. The volunteers also served food at a holiday party for First Avenues, a Hamilton program that helps families transition from homelessness to permanent housing.

Hamilton Family Center was an especially happy place this holiday season. Thanks to a generous gift from Salesforce.com’s Marc and Lynne Benioff, Hamilton will be able to move all current residents into permanent housing in time for Christmas. Not only will this provide more than 70 families with stable homes, it will also open up shelter space for those on Hamilton’s long waiting list, many of whom are living on the street.

Thank you to the Benioffs, Macys.com volunteers, and to all who give back to the community! Happy holidays!

Read more about the Benioffs’ gift and the impact it will have for homeless families in the San Francisco Chronicle.

Filed Under: Pathways out of Poverty, United Way Partners Tagged With: holidays, homeless, macy's

Quote of the Day

June 16, 2010 By Maria Stokes Leave a Comment

As the nation’s housing and job markets show encouraging signs of recovery, there are still far too many families who are on the brink of becoming homeless or have fallen into our shelter system.”

– Shaun Donovan, Secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development

From the USA Today article, “Families in homeless shelters increased 7% in ’09“

Filed Under: Road to Recovery Tagged With: basic needs, families, homeless

Parking For Social Change?

June 3, 2010 By Olu Johnson Leave a Comment

Baltimore is using parking meters to curb panhandling and raise awareness for homeless advocacy

As anyone who lives in the Bay Area knows, issues related to parking meters can sometimes get very contentious and that’s an understatement. But what if instead of generating controversy, parking meters were being used to fight a social ill? Instead of only preventing yourself from getting a ticket, feeding a meter also meant doing good for your community?

Well in a number of cities such an experiment is underway. Painted in a special color so as to stand out from the others, special meters have been installed with all the proceeds going directly to services such as shelters, housing, job counseling and health care. The programs are in place to discourage panhandling reasoning that money towards services would go further towards helping people.

The idea was first tried in Baltimore and has spread to cities like Denver, Chattanooga and Las Vegas. In Baltimore they’re located around the touristy harbor area, and when coins are deposited, the dials click from “despair” to “hope.” In Denver they’ve used this as part of an effort to curb panhandling which is down 92%. There, the meters have raised almost $100,000.

The idea of parking for social change is one that could easily be adapted and a catch on in the Bay Area which has a high rate of charitable giving, and a history of taking an unusual approach to parking spaces.

(photo via flickr user ktylerconk)