Helping Hands Street Mission has an ambitious goal of providing 100 tents for our friends and neighbours living outside.
Helping Hands Street Mission is a non-profit on the corner of Barton and Emerald that offers friendship-based support to folks that are facing financial, social, and spiritual poverty. One of the ways we do this is through our free clothing store and café.
Our free clothing store offers a lot more than clothes; we also have hygiene products, bedding, and footwear. Last year, we started stocking sleeping bags and tents in our store as well.
We received around 100 requests last summer for tents but were only able to provide 32 tents. This year, we’re trying our best to meet the demand by asking our community to generously donate 100 new and gently used tents. We also have an Amazon Wishlist that the public can use to buy a tent and have it delivered directly to Helping Hands.
We all agree that tents are not the solution for our houseless neighbours, but they are still needed by those that are living outside. We had a young woman come to us for months asking for a tent. We didn’t have anything for her, but she came back week after week asking for one out of desperation. Finally, one was donated and she came at the right time to get it. I could see the relief in her body and the joy that spread across her face when I told her we had a tent for her. Tents aren’t the answer, but for someone, it’s the next crucial step in survival while they’re living outside.
For more information on how to help, please call Helping Hands at 905 522 4263 or e-mail lisette@hhsmhamilton.com
