According to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, there are 600,000 homeless men, women, and children on any given night throughout the country. Nearly 25% of them are children. Homelessness tends to be more prominent in larger metropolitan areas but the homeless occupy every state and every kind of location. The homeless are the most vulnerable members of society who have no money, no resources, and very few (if any) people to go to. And as awful as it sounds, many of them lack basic clothing to protect themselves against the elements.
Moreover, a considerable amount of the materials that could be used for clothing for the homeless is needlessly discarded. Fabrics such as cotton, polyester, nylon, rayon, and silk compose about 5% of all waste materials in the U.S. Nearly 90% of such materials are reusable and could have gone to people who could have truly used them. In 2006 alone, 2.5 billion pounds of recyclable fabric were kept from the landfills and were used to make clothing. Think of the billions of fabric materials that have simply gone to waste.
There are, thankfully, simple ways to help the homeless. One major way is to donate lightly used clothing to charity. Charitable clothing donations provide desperately-needed clothing to the nation’s homeless and poor. Millions of Americans depend on these donations to brave the weather. Donating clothes to charity doesn’t take much effort. Many charitable organizations have bins and other containers which accept clothing donations. There are even charities that will pick up donations right from your doorstep or curbside! Helping families in need has never been more convenient.
So whether you have a pair of socks you no longer wear or a few t-shirts you have outgrown, consider donating to charity. Helping families in need — the 600,000 homeless and the millions more who are poverty-stricken — is truly a goal everyone can get around with.
