Do you know what the average age of a homeless person in the Kansas City area is?

When you picture a homeless person, what kind of person do you picture? I usually picture maybe a 50 to 60 year old man.

What if I told you that 30 years old is higher than the average?

What if I told you that 20 years old is higher than the average?

What if I told you that 10 years old is higher than the average?

7 years old. 7 years old is the average age of a homeless person in Kansas City.

As you think about how young that is, picture this: the temperature tonight in the KC area will be single digits with a wind-chill below zero. While you walk from your car into your house and complain about how cold it is, some mother with her little kids are surviving the night outside.

I say this partially to guilt you into stop being so calloused to others but also to show you how important it is that we solve this problem. Not that it didn’t need to be worked on if it was older guys but especially for the future generations of kids who are going to school each day not knowing where they’re going to sleep that night.

Today I had the privilege of helping Hillcrest Platte County at one of their properties. They run a thrift store to support some of what they do. What do they do? Basically, they get homeless people off the streets. However, that doesn’t even begin to describe what they truly do.

One of the most important things about their ministry is that they don’t focus on the short-term fixes, they focus on the long-term gain. They take a homeless person and in 90 days get them a job, apartment, and a great avenue to continue in self-sustaining development.

They don’t do free handouts, what they do is take people who are willing and ready to get out of the situation they’re in and put them to work in restoring their future. They provide apartments, food, childcare, whatever is needed, but they require that the person going through the program is working every day. If they stop working, they’re out.

This might seem harsh but this is what’s needed. If these people don’t have people telling them that they need to work, then they’re going to continue relying on the support of others and never understand the true joy of supporting yourself.

I highly recommend you check out what Hillcrest is doing. This idea needs to spread across the nation. People are so often concerned when they’re “giving money to homeless people” that those people are just going to waste it. This allows you to be confident that what you’re putting your money to is actually making a long-term impact in the homeless community.

Don’t look at the homeless community and say “something must be done. *This* is something. This must be done. That’s what politicians do. If we really want to see change happen, see what actually works and support that.

Be purposeful.