There are numerous ways we can give back to the homeless. Besides giving them cash and food, passing out care kits to them, giving them job opportunities, or even just striking up a conversation with them are all ways to show them that we care. Homeless or not, we’re all people, and we all deserve the right to live and be treated as any other human being.
One way the St. Boniface Church in the Tenderloin District of San Francisco is giving back to its city’s heavy homeless population is by taking part in the Gubbio Project. Participants in the Gubbio Project, including St. Boniface Church, aim to provide necessities, facilities, and services for the homeless population as a way to give back to them.
In one viral video, we learn more about St. Boniface Church and their participants in the Gubbio Project. Every weekday morning, the St. Boniface Church temporarily houses over 200 homeless individuals to give them a quiet, peaceful, safe place to sleep. According to the Gubbio Project website, sleep is one of the most critical problems among the homeless population. However, one of the reasons they are not able to get the restful, undisturbed sleep they require is due to the fact that they frequently are told to leave public and private property. Not having a home of their own, finding a designated place to sleep is not easy.
Coming into Boniface Church, homeless individuals can rest peacefully on the church’s pews. Apart from sharing their shelter with the homeless, Boniface also distributes free blankets, socks, and hygiene kits; provides referrals for outside resources; and offers chaplaincy services. At St. John the Evangelist, another participant in the Gubbio Project, the latter services are also provided along with foot care and massage services.
In the following video, we not only learn more about the Gubbio Project but also open our eyes to the realities of homelessness. Many of us presume that a majority of the homeless population has made bad life decisions in terms of drug or alcohol abuse, being “too lazy” to work, or getting kicked out of their home for misbehavior. However, from what some of the individuals have to say in the video in regard to the reason they are homeless, we realize that there is often more than what meets the eye.
“Worked with an antique and used furniture outfit…I did that for like six-and-a-half years, and then he closed the shop, and that put me on unemployment. The unemployment ran out, and that’s what put me in, you know, that little downward spiral.”
Although homelessness may always be an issue, and we may not be able to prevent the reasons for their homelessness from the start, the churches involved in the Gubbio Project are non-judgmental, welcoming, and generous to those who need their shelter, necessities, and services the most. It’s certainly a project we can be grateful for.
To learn more about the Gubbio Project, watch the video below, and check out the Gubbio Project website.
