It’s going to be very cold over the next few days in my area and I’d like to buy something for the people who are homeless, particularly ones who won’t be in a shelter.
For budgeting, there is one shelter in my area for adults and one for children/teenagers. I don’t know how many people would not have shelter but in the past, I have planned for 40 people when providing food for people in a shelter.
My budget is about $200 USD; what would be the most useful? thermal blankets? hot food?
Edit: thanks to all who responded. I called the shelter and the most needed items are (1) sleeping bags (2) very warm gloves to prevent frostbite (3) boots
You are a kind person, but as others have said try not to take on this large burden yourself. Do what you’re comfortable with and be satisfied with that. This is an ongoing and largely intractable problem that you cannot solve alone.
An adult has the right to take on burdens as they see fit.
Nothing warms you up like a bit of fire. So if you set fire to the area they spend their time in, they should keep warm for as long as the fire keeps going.
Have a lot of fuel ready.This is a bad joke.
However, I did consider mentioning the possibility of a rocket stove or similar. It’s pretty pricey, though, and something like that could potentially cause trouble with law enforcement so probably not best for OP’s purposes.
Anything that looks good enough to be sold, will be. Or the cops will consider it stolen and take it away. Might even arrest whoever’s using it or just beat them.
Has to be old and ragged-looking, not draw attention. Functionality and ease of positioning are what matter. And it needs fuel. Whatever stuff they have lying around is used as clothing or for shelter. No fuel, no fire. Can’t throw gas at them though, should be something solid yet useless for anything else other than burning it.
A rocket stove is wood-burning, and it’ll look shabby and scorched after just a single use. It’s very efficient, you could run it on twigs and fallen branches. I could easily imagine something like it being very handy for a group of homeless people camping in a park or other wooded area.
But as I said, I decided not to suggest it. They’re pretty pricey and specialized.
How cold is “very cold”? I’m in Canada and right now it’s -35C outside my house, approaching -50 with wind chill. If I was out there right now my main prep would be “holy shit get to any sort of shelter, outdoors is lethal tonight.” I believe the city leaves the various transit centers open for people to bunk down in overnight under conditions like this.
Failing that, my first priority would probably be a wool blanket. Wool blankets are great at insulation, they work even when wet, and they can be folded up fairly compactly and worn as a shawl or cloak if a little mobility is needed. Though under tonight’s conditions I wouldn’t be mobile, I would have found the most sheltered place I could immediately reach and rolled up in the blanket in hopes I would actually wake up in the morning.
Cheapest I’d expect to find a good wool blanket for would be something like these $30 ones, so that’s 6 or 7 blankets on your budget. Not too bad I suppose. Maybe there are cheaper places you could get some in bulk?
If I had sufficient blanket that I’m expecting to survive, my next concern would be frostbite taking my fingers, toes, or ears. So good warm mittens (for survival purposes in these conditions I’d prefer mittens over gloves), thick wool socks, and a hat might be good. Boots would be expensive and hard to ensure the right size for if you’re giving this stuff out to random strangers, hopefully their footwear is loose enough that the thick wool socks will fit. I’ve always liked trapper hats, the chin strap keeps the ears and cheeks protected and ensures I don’t lose it to a strong gust of wind or other circumstances. The nose would be left unprotected, so perhaps a scarf would be good to add to that - a scarf is like a little mini blanket and might be versatile if they need to wrap it around some other part of themselves for emergency cold protection.
This is all just off the top of my head, mind you. I’ve dealt with Canadian winters all my life but I’ve fortunately never had to deal with them as a homeless person, so I could easily be missing something.
Perhaps you could call up a homeless shelter and ask whoever’s running it for advice? I’m sure they’d have more direct experience.
Universal Basic Income.
