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Organization Helping 'Invisible People'
Organization Helping 'Invisible People' 1/12/13
CBS 7 News Reporter
January 12, 2013
tguinn@cbs7.com
Odessa - There are around 200 people without a place to call home here in Odessa.
Jesus House works daily to provide the needy with a hot meal and clothes. However, they say it takes more than just one organization to help the homeless; it takes a community.
We live in a fast paced world, always coming and going. But if we take a second to slow down and look beyond the hustle and bustle, we find a community of invisible people who don't have a place to call home. People that day in and day out, walk the streets. One of those people was a man named Detroit.
"He was trying to get into a shelter. He didn't have adequate i.d. to get in, so he was forced to live on the streets," Evan Rogers, a volunteer for Jesus House said.
On the streets is where Detroit froze to death last weekend.
Rogers says Detroit isn't the only one who lived out his final days on the streets.
"They don't get an obituary, they don't get a death notice and the majority of the time, they don't get a burial service," he said.
Rogers showed CBS 7 a few areas where the homeless have stayed before, he says these people aren't who you'd think.
"The perception that our society has is that when they think of a homeless person. They think of them as lazy, alcoholics...and that's just not the case," Rogers said. "They have jobs, there's just no where for them to stay."
Rogers says he's working to change the perception of homlessness. He says that's the starting point to prevent another person from dying on the streets.
"These are people too. They want to be loved on and they want to be spoken to like a normal person," he said.
Rogers says he and group from Jesus House will be on the streets the next few nights handing out hot chocolate, sleeping bags and coats to the homeless because the forecast is calling for below freezing temperatures.
Jesus House is in need of items to help keep the homeless warm.
The organization needs zero degree sleeping bags, thermals and coats with hoods.
Jesus House is located at: 1335 E. 6th St. in Odessa.
For more information, you can call: 432-272-3362 or 432-559-9165.