Standing in line at the store, one of our Outreach Staff thought he recognized the girl at the checkout counter.

He couldn’t quite place how he knew her, but the cashier definitely remembered him.

“You look familiar,” he said. And the she began to tell her story…

Not long ago, she had been homeless for the first time in her life and didn’t know where to get help. She was alone on the streets, and scared.

She had stopped by the Burnside Shelter for a free breakfast. The staff person spent time giving her resources where she could get help.

“Thank you for being there,” the cashier said through tears. Today, she’s off the streets, has her own apartment, and a job.

Homelessness ends. Thanks for your support that makes it happen.

Guards at Willamette National Cemetery. (Photo by DeadManTalking, Flickr)

From OPB News:

Not much is known about Stevenson Roy. He was born 60 years ago in Montgomery, Alabama. He served in Vietnam and was honorably discharged. Dozens of people visited the Willamette National Cemetery on Wednesday to pay their respects to the homeless Portland veteran. Roy lived on the streets of Portland and died last month.

Doug McCleary volunteered to lead the service.

“What went through my mind was, how do we honor this man? How do we honor a man who has like I said, fallen through the cracks, but served his country for 11 years? And served faithfully, and yet nothings doing. So…I brought in a spiritual element as you can tell by talking about Jesus and his love for the poor and the homeless, which I think is appropriate, regardless of anybody’s religious background. But also tried to speak as much as I could about his service,” said McCleary.

Roy’s funeral was organized by the ‘Dignity Memorial’ network of funeral homes. Nationwide, it was the group’s one thousandth such service. The network estimates 67,000 veterans are homeless in the U.S. on any given night.

Paige’s Story of Hope on YouTube

A few months later, Paige was gang raped at a high-school party. “I suddenly found myself really, really angry toward God. He was supposed to protect me. Why would he let these things happen to me?”

Her family moved from Portland to St. Helens, and Paige’s new friends introduced her to marijuana. “I shut down, then started drinking, then cocaine. The next thing I knew, I was a full-blown addict, with heroin and meth.”

“I didn’t think God cared…no one else cared… why should I? I couldn’t quit, and it just got worse and worse — a vicious cycle.”

Paige has been in our New Life Recovery Ministry for a year. She is well on the path toward healing and a newfound personal relationship with Jesus who does care. “And now I care,” she says, “about myself, and others. There’s hope.”

Help us change more lives. Donate online or call 503-MISSION (647-7466).

A recent article by StreetRoots highlights:

From the StreetRoots blog: “A long way from home: Soldiers return from the battlefields”

Ryan McNabb was a medic in the Marine Corps for six years. He deployed twice to Iraq and worked on the front lines, experiencing, he says, what you’d expect to experience on a battlefield. He returned home in February 2006.

A few months later, he got in a fight and assaulted two police officers. He chalked it up to normal drunken sailor stuff — just blowing off steam.

When he blacked out in rage, while driving 65 miles per hour with his wife and five-month old son in the back seat, he realized it wasn’t normal any more.

“I know I’m an intelligent human being. I know why babies cry, and they’re trying to inform me of something,” McNabb said. “But with PTSD, I don’t like large sharp sounds. It reminds me of gunshots and explosions. My son had wet himself. He started to cry. I was driving. While he’s screaming at the back of my head, he’s screaming at my soul, which set me off. So I start screaming at my wife, while going 65 miles per hour down the freeway. She shouts back at me. I rip the rearview mirror off and threw it at the floorboard. I grabbed the GPS and threw it at the windshield and it spiderwebbed going 65 mph with my wife and child in back seat. I blacked out in rage. I don’t remember pulling to the side of the road at all.”

>> Read the full article

And where is Ted now?

AdWeek and Entertainment Tonight review the ups and downs of Ted’s efforts to put his life back together.

Oregon One-Night Homeless Count
http://www.oregon.gov/OHCS/RA_2011_Point_In_Time_Homeless_Counts.shtml

2011 Point-In-Time Count of Homelessness, Portland/Multnomah County
http://www.portlandonline.com/phb/index.cfm?c=43985

U.S. Conference of Mayors Hunger and Homelessness Report
http://www.usmayors.org/pressreleases/uploads/2011-hhreport.pdf

Our special thanks go to Nike Golf employees who recently donated over 6,000 lbs. of clothing, shoes and blankets for Portland’s homeless men, women and children.

The clothing drive, led by employee Judd Nelson, has been an annual tradition for 10 years, resulting in over 32,000 lbs. of much needed clothing. The gesture of goodwill began after the 9/11 attacks as a way of giving back to the community, inspiring hope in people trying to rebuild their lives.

The clothing items will be distributed through Portland Rescue Mission, providing essential emergency care. Each interaction with a homeless guest is a chance to learn a name, offer a smile and establish a relationship that may lead to a total life change.

On an average night, how many people in Portland sleep on the streets or in emergency shelter?

Answer in the embedded poll below, or at https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/6HJDBQF

Portland’s hungry and homeless will now have access to free lunches on Saturday and Sunday

For years the Mission has served a hot, nutritious breakfast and dinner, seven days a week, year-round, to anyone who needed a meal – up to 240,000 meals per year. “Several social service groups serve weekday lunches, so we’ve always focused on early morning and evening meals,” says Eric Bauer, Portland Rescue Mission executive director. “But on weekends, most of our guests have to skip a mid-day meal. Thanks to the Walmart gift, we’ll offer an indoor lunch option and open more space in our Burnside Shelter during weekend day hours.”

Refrigerated truck provided by the Walmart Foundation helps transport food to our various ministry sites.

Earlier this year, Walmart provided funds to purchase a refrigerated truck for Portland Rescue Mission. “We prepare and serve meals in three locations,” Bauer explains. “The gift of this truck from Walmart allows us to safely and efficiently transport purchased and donated food from site to site.” Walmart employees in Oregon also voted to award Portland Rescue Mission a special $10,000 grant this year in its Associates Choice Program.

Walmart’s “Fighting Hunger Together” program includes plans to donate more than 1.1 billion pounds of food valued at $1.75 billion, plus grants totaling $250 million to support hunger relief efforts by non-profit organizations like Portland Rescue Mission nationwide. Walmart already has contributed more than $5 million of food in Portland alone.*

Portland Rescue Mission reports an increase of 14% in daily meal demand since the recession began in 2008, but with an alarming 21% increase in the last three months. The Mission is also the city’s largest provider of emergency shelter and is open 24 hours/day with safe, clean restrooms for men and women, mail service, clothing, blankets and hygiene items, and referral services. It also offers a free residential addiction recovery program, including counseling, continuing education and job training.

* “From Shelf to Table: An Analysis of Walmart’s Impact on Hunger in America,” July 18, 2011

From BBC News:

In Denver, Colorado, many families are joining the growing ranks of homeless. Some are finding temporary shelter by checking into the rather optimistically named Aristocrat Motel – a boxy two-story building run by a charity, Volunteers of America.

>> READ MORE AND WATCH VIDEO