Ya, I know. It’s a corny title. But not only is it true I needed to get your attention.
Right now at this very moment, homeless people are sleeping outside in the freezing cold. In small rural communities like Ithaca, New York there are not enough services for the people that are in need. The cost of housing continues to rise causing more homelessness, but funding for social services continues to be reduced.
This past week people started saying a phrase I’ve never heard before. “Bomb cyclone” hit the Northeast causing areas in Central and Upstate New York to drop below zero degrees, yet even in negative temperatures over 20 people slept outside in a tent encampment known as the “Jungle.”
Many of the homeless men and women living in the Jungle have jobs, but the Ithaca’s high cost of housing leaves them no choice but to live in a tent outside.
TJ and Alie lost their jobs a few months back. TJ was able to get another job at a fast food restaurant, but it doesn’t pay enough for them to get an apartment. In America today homelessness has become affordable housing.
“We can help you, but we can help you stay in this situation” is how Alie describes support services. There is real truth to that. Homeless services never have enough funding, and in rural communities like Ithaca, getting support is much harder because there are fewer services than in urban areas. Added to that the layers of bureaucracy just to help even one person is maddening. The homeless services sector does not make it easy for people to get out of homelessness.
Alie’s last wish was to marry TJ. Just yesterday TJ asked Alie to marry him, and the couple got engaged. TJ’s last wish was to have enough funds to have an awesome wedding. If you’d like to make that wish happen here is a link to a GoFundMe page to help with the cost of their wedding.
If you’d like to support some of the amazing people trying to help our homeless friends in Ithaca visit
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Since its launch in November 2008, Invisible People has leveraged the power of video and the massive reach of social media to share the compelling, gritty, and unfiltered stories of homeless people from Los Angeles to Washington, D.C. The vlog (video blog) gets up close and personal with veterans, mothers, children, layoff victims and others who have been forced onto the streets by a variety of circumstances. Each week, they’re on InvisiblePeople.tv, and high traffic sites such as YouTube, Twitter and Facebook, proving to a global audience that while they may often be ignored, they are far from invisible.
Invisible People goes beyond the rhetoric, statistics, political debates, and limitations of social services to examine poverty in America via a medium that audiences of all ages can understand, and can’t ignore. The vlog puts into context one of our nation’s most troubling and prevalent issues through personal stories captured by the lens of Mark Horvath – its founder – and brings into focus the pain, hardship and hopelessness that millions face each day. One story at a time, videos posted on InvisiblePeople.tv shatter the stereotypes of America’s homeless, force shifts in perception and deliver a call to action that is being answered by national brands, nonprofit organizations and everyday citizens now committed to opening their eyes and their hearts to those too often forgotten.
Invisible People is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization dedicated to changing the way we think about people experiencing homelessness.
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