Buy Stuff... and End Homelessness?

Spending Power on BLEAK Friday

I’m not a fan of Black Friday. This will likely not surprise you. The misdirect of Christmas as a shopping holiday; the encroachment on the day meant to be for giving thanks (which has its own major issues); the false flag of gift-giving as anxious transaction; the selling of basic housewares that pits the bargain-hunting wealthy against the working poor who just want something nice. Add that to what has already been a TOUGH season in a tough year, and I’m ready to christen this “Bleak Friday” more than Black Friday.

But WOW aren’t there things to love about Christmas and gifting?? That feeling as a kid of waking up and opening presents? Getting an unexpected gift from a friend that shows how much they see you? Finding the perfect gift for someone you love that you know they’ll love even if they would never pick it out for themselves?

In our current setup, there is little way to participate in the good without at least indulging some of the bad. So with that in mind, I wanted to create a small gift guide for the people in your life who care about ending homelessness. Emphasis on small, though I hope this list grows over time. In all of these, there is intentional thought not just to the product but to the source.

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Gifts made by/for people experiencing homelessness via social enterprise

1. Need wrapping paper?? Wrap Up Homelessness

A group I’m very familiar with and a big fan of is Curbside Chronicle in OKC. They began as a street paper, allowing unhoused folks to produce news and art that mattered to them sell them to earn dignified income. Since that beginning, Curbside has also opened a flower shop and other social enterprises, and grown astronomically as a service provider as well. For the Holidays, they offer lots of local stuff for pickup to those living in the OKC metro. For the rest of us, though, there is Wrap Up Homelessness:

Designed by artists from Oklahoma, you can buy these 2 ft x 3ft sheets of designer wrapping paper while benefitting this awesome org, and they will ship to you. There are two different sets of designs—I recommend grabbing both!

Buy here!

2. Made by DWC

The Downtown Women’s Center is one of the largest and most historic nonprofits serving women experiencing homelessness in Los Angeles. Fun fact: they’re the first homeless services job I ever applied for. (They didn’t hire me, which frankly was the right call at the time.) Another fun fact is that for more than a decade they’ve had a shop near their drop-in in downtown LA staffed by program participants and featuring goods made by them as well, all directly benefitting the creator and sellers.

Check out their wide range of gifts including candles, mugs, coffee beans, stationary, clothing, and so much more.

Shop HERE!

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Great Nonprofits with Great Merch!

Support a couple of amazing nonprofits who also sell lovely swag.

1. Open Table Nashville

Open Table does absolutely incredible work in outreach advocacy in Nashville and beyond. And on top of that, they make great shirts and sweaters with simple but profound messaging: End Homelessness - Housing is Human Right - There’s Plenty of Room at the Table - Fight For a Just Future. Available in some unique colors, this is like half my wardrobe.

Shop HERE!

2. The Center in Hollywood

This is where I started my work in this field, and where nearly all of the stories in my first book are from. I’m still just the biggest fan of their work even as I moved on to Minneapolis, and their belief that community is an essential component to ending homelessness both individually and systemically. I love their “Community Ends Homelessness” design for both mugs and sweaters, and they have a few other interesting goodies too.

Shop HERE!

3. FirstPres Hayward

I’ve had the opportunity to visit and partner with the folks at FirstPres Hayward multiple times. They are up to so much good in how they provide essential services in Castro Valley, CA, and also how they mobilize the whole surrounding community.

Their store is small… it’s three items (shirt, sticker, button) of one design. But I’m obsessed with it.

The phrase “aiding and abetting” comes from a negative review the church has on Google because they serve unhoused people. The rest of the image… well, hear it from the artist herself:

Lizya-Beth du Plessis is an artist, activist, and elder at First Pres.

Inspired by this series and her own relationships with unhoused neighbors, she created this artwork with these details in mind.

Roots

The image includes roots to represent not uprooting people from their homes (even if these homes are temporary).

Whole Plants

The flowers are completely in tact. As botanical drawings became more colonized, they started to become more dissected, and didn't even resemble the actual plant in nature. Depicting the plants in tact resists the inclination to commodify people only for their "usefulness" to capitalism.

Weeds and Wisdom

The image is composed primary of weeds that all have medicinal properties (dandelion, mustard, yarrow). These represent how easy it is to view particular people as "annoyances," when in truth we all have wisdom and healing to offer.

Dahlia

This flower is unique to our FirstPres story. The front of our church holds a rose garden from many years ago. The thorny plants make it hard for people to gather, so our volunteer gardener has been quietly replacing each rose bush as it dies with a Dahlia plant. Dahlias have medicinal properties, ensuring beauty continues to grow, and hurt is replaced with healing.

…. tell me you don’t have goosebumps.

Buy HERE!

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Books!!! Books!!! BOOOOOOOOKKKKKKSSSSSS!!!

There are so many great books about homelessness! And more keep coming! Here’s a shortlist that I have read and recommend. All links are to Bookshop.org, where you can choose your local bookstore to receive the profits from your purchase, instead of giving it to Jeff Bezos so he can launch more rich people into space. (An almost good idea, the problem is it’s a round-trip.)

1. Homelessness is a Housing Problem

A terrific title for a terrific book, with an academic bent (but still very readable.)

Buy HERE

2. Housekeys Not Handcuffs

An absolutely essential collection of essays and art that emerged from homeless activists in San Francisco. This book is hard to find, but the best way to get it is by making a donation to WRAP and selecting it as the complimentary gift you will receive. A win/win/win!

Donate and get a copy HERE!

3. Neighbors with No Doors

This unassuming book is such a terrific example of story-telling and myth-busting when it comes to homelessness. Josiah is a person of faith, which informs his approach, but it is not a “Christian” book in the way mine is. It’s short, sweet, and effective.

Buy HERE!

4. Zion Learns to See

I’m often asked how to talk to kids about homelessness, and the first thing I do is recommend this book. It’s written by Terence Lester (who wrote the foreword for my book) and his daughter Zion Lester. It’s fantastic.

Buy HERE!

5. Praying with Our Feet

This book by Lindsey Krinks (founder of Open Table Nashville featured above) is part memoir, part education, and part call. As you can tell, I’m such a huge fan of the work that they do and in this book you get to hear how that all began—and more importantly how someone who grew up in faith and with a passion for justice turned her heart and her advocacy toward homelessness in one of the most anti-homeless cities in America.

Buy HERE!

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Oh, and also I wrote a book and cowrote an advent devotional zine and you should totally get those too :)

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