Keep these in your car, give them to the homeless

It's getting colder outside and those with no place to live are trying to find a way to keep warm. A new report says that New Jersey has more homeless families and teens than you would think.

According to that article by David Matthau, Kasey Congero of Ending Homeless Team at Monarch Housing Associates said data collected for the NJCounts 2020 Report found 9,663 men, women and children in 7,365 households experienced homelessness, an increase of about 799 people from 2019.

The article also said that teams in every New Jersey county collected homelessness data and found there were close to 8,000 people in emergency shelters, hotel/motel placements, transitional housing and safe-haven programs, an increase of 6% from 2019. And almost 2,000 people had no shelter at all, an increase of 304 people from the previous year.

There is something you can do to help these poor people and families that's very easy and inexpensive. Give them socks!

"What they really need are socks," says Caroline Scherrer, who's the co-founder of People For The Poor, which helps fund homeless shelters and soup kitchens throughout South Jersey.

"Believe it or not," Scherrer told me, "a former homeless man addressed a social action class at Catholic University and said if he had his choice between a brand new winter coat and a brand new pair of socks, he would take the socks every time, because you can always find a way of getting warm, but if your feet are wet, if they're cold, if they have holes in them that are causing blisters, it just throws the entire body off."

Socks are so easy to give. You could either buy new or just take the old ones that you or your kids have grown out of, ball them up and keep them under the front seat of your car in case you drive by someone begging in the street. It doesn't even matter if they match.

A lot of good people lost a lot of money during this pandemic. There are those who can no longer afford a place to live and those who may not be able to afford to give. Socks can solve the latter. No matter how much you have or do not have, you probably have a pair of socks you can spare. Keep them in your car, they might just be able to keep someone else warm.

The post above reflects the thoughts and observations of New Jersey 101.5 talk show host Steve Trevelise. Any opinions expressed are Steve's own. Steve Trevelise is on New Jersey 101.5 Monday-Thursday from 7pm-11pm. Follow him on Twitter @realstevetrev.

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