Seattle Woman Warms The Homeless One Blanket At A Time

SEATTLE, WA — In 2014, Veda Taylor felt a hint of the chill that settles deep into the bones of hundreds of thousands of Americans who have no home. The Seattle woman was living in Virginia at the time, and there was no heat in her home on a 6 degree morning. Frost built up on the inside of her windows.

As cold as she was, her thoughts were with the shivering people at a homeless camp less than a mile from her home. She could warm herself at her oven.

But what were they to do?

“If I was freezing, I couldn’t imagine their plight,” Taylor wrote on GoFundMe. “The news confirmed people in the DC area had literally frozen to death.”

That seminal moment spurred Taylor to action, and eventually, the establishment of Blankets to the Streets, a nonprofit group that distributes emergency blankets to homeless people. Four years later, the organization has distributed 62,000 blankets. They fold neatly into a pouch and are made of mylar, which protects against cold and moisture and guards against hypothermia — critical protection for people who sleep outside in the elements

“I couldn't stop thinking about it, and it haunted me that I didn't have money or a car to take them to shelters or any way to help,” she wrote. “Still, I did some research and found out about emergency blankets. They could help keep people alive — if only I had money.”

She put out a plea on Facebook.

“What happened next changed everything,” she wrote.

People were willing to give money, but not necessarily help with the distribution of blankets. Someone turned her on to the GoFundMe crowdfunding site, where she set what seemed like a sky-high goal at the time — $700.

Today, Blankets to the Streets has volunteers across the country. The organization works at home and abroad, distributing blankets, coats, hats and gloves, hand-warmers, food, pet food and other items to people who survive with little on the streets.

The need is greater than it has been in several years. Though an imperfect count, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development said in December that its latest Point In Time survey, conducted in January 2017, showed that homelessness in America inched up 1 percent, to nearly 554,000 souls who don’t have homes, from 2016.

Among the homeless were 193,000 people who lived on the streets, in vehicles and tents, or in other places considered uninhabitable. That population increased 9 percent from two years prior.

Among them is the man two volunteers for the nonprofit discovered recently in New York. He held his sweater over himself like a tent, trying to shield himself from the rain. The two volunteers’ street activism spurred a project to create a resource database that will make it easier for homeless people in New York to locate services — “a brilliant effort,” Taylor wrote.

Spring may be coming, but Taylor warns that “once you’re wet, even 50 or 60 degrees is cool enough to pose or exacerbate health issues.”

Starting the campaign was one of the best things she ever did. It changed her life, Taylor wrote:

“It helped me realize that anything is possible, even for an economically poor person like me. And it helped touch, protect, and save tens of thousands of people from frostbite. All of us have the power to make a difference for people in our communities — you just have to take that first step.”

Taylor’s campaign is one of more than 280,000 related to homelessness started in the United States in the last three years alone, GoFundMe said. The campaigns have received over a million donations and raised more than $69 million. Click here to browse some of them. Click here to donate to Taylor’s Blankets to the Homeless campaign.

GoFundMe is a Patch promotional partner.

Photos via GoFundMe