A brief thought about a half-million dollars seems breathtaking, especially if you are living in your pickup truck, like I happen to be doing right now. But if you look at slightly more than a half-million dollars which are divided among five agencies helping the homeless and the other needy in a county of about 250,000 people, well that amount starts looking like chump change.
Nonetheless, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development doled out more than $560,000 in the 2006 Homeless Grants. Those amounts were among $1.4 billion in funding for more than 5,300 homeless programs nationwide, HUD announced today.
“These grants will support thousands of local programs that are on the front lines of helping those who might otherwise be living on our streets,” said HUD Secretary Alphonso “Action” Jackson. “Whether it’s a single man living with a mental illness or a family struggling to give their children a roof over their heads, this funding is quite literally saving lives.”
Or so we hope the funds are being used for those purposes. Some agencies receiving federal money squander the money sometimes for uses such as overhead and feeding the director’s pooch. But other agencies hold their operations together with string, duct tape and a prayer and still are able to deliver services to those people of whom Meester Secretary Jackon speaks. Those agencies awarded the HUD funding in the Beaumont area are:
Family Services of Southeast Texas Inc. — $150,977.00
Port Cities Rescue Mission Ministries — $175,037.00
Buckner Children and Family Services, Inc. — $35,016.00
Some Other Place, Inc.– $111,888.00
Triangle AIDS Network– $94,476.00
Of these agencies, I am most familiar with Some Other Place and I’m not totally sure of everything that they can do for homeless and other needy. I just know they have and continue to help me. And they seem to help those who need it while operating with less flash and more elbow grease than many other organizations serving the needy. Some Other Place, their soup kitchen and Uncle Henry’s, just down McFaddin Street from Some Other Place and the soup kitchen, depend most heavily on volunteers and donations from the public. So if you are in a position to help an organization, I would recommend Some Other Place in Beaumont as a good place to start. Like some great mind once said: “They’s good people.”
Of course, you also may help EFD by clicking the donation button to your right, unless you are in Australia and then the button will be most likely on … your right. And through the magic of the Internets, these transactions fly through the air with grace, ease and speed where the money ends up in something called PayPal, which pays me after the money is transferred to my bank. So there you have it. Just think how much richer you will feel knowing you helped me, or helped a worthwhile charity such as Some Other Place, or both. Yes, you can feel much richer by such acts, all while your riches dwindle in a minute fashion. It’s amazing how giving a little money away makes one feel. It makes this one feel wonderful, both to give and to receive. But don’t take my word for it.