The Necessities Van
The Supplies that help Homeless the Most
Reader, I’d like to brainstorm with you to create a product. This product won’t make us any money, but it will help someone somewhere. It’s a van filled with basic necessities that will help a homeless person survive on the street until they can upgrade their situation. This van will drive around and give out supplies, with no strings attached, to homeless people. Success will be measured by the number of people who are warm tomorrow who were cold today.
This story is meant to be collaborative. I want to layout the objective and then use the comments readers post to explore the idea further. To that end, this article will be changing as I receive input. Focus on something in the distance to keep from getting dizzy.
Objective #1: The goal is to drive a van around the city with supplies to give away. These supplies will hit the spot of “just what I needed”, and be refined over time.
Let’s get started. The following items will be included in the van, and packaged in a way to make delivery quick and easy. We’ll come up with an inventory system later so we know what to re-order, and we’ll worry about labor and automation when we get closer to launching.
- Thermal Socks
- Hand-crank flashlight
- Solar Phone Charger
- YMCA passes
- Bus passes
- Hand Warmers
- Pet Food and/or a pet store gift card
- Dog coat
- Pepper Spray
- Bandaids/ Adhesive Bandages
- Flushable Wipes
- Trac Phone
- Sewing Kit
- Duct Tape
- Dirty Clothes Hamper (to collect clothes, wash them, and then bring them back clean)
- Space for clean clothes with a system of identification and distribution
- Three seats; passenger and two rear seats to provide transportation to showers, shelters, food, etc. As long as we’re driving, we may as well offer rides.
Objective #2: offer a booklet of practical advice:
- This is what you can do to survive right now
- This is what you can do to stay safe
- This is what you can do to get money (Look for organizations that offer WIC and SNAP benefits)
What else should be added? If there are other circumstances to consider, please put them in the comments. Thank you for helping. This isn’t just an intellectual exercise. We’re going to refine this until it’s something we can do. I’m sick and tired of walking past a homeless person and not knowing what I can do to help them other than give them money.
I would love to hear from people who are currently or have at one time been homeless or know someone who is homeless.
Update: I added items from the comments. I’m starting to realize that I am very disconnected with what it’s like to be actually homeless. Now I’m wondering if maybe instead of a bag of supplies, a store-like experience would be better? Maybe a Van filled with supplies that can drive around and offer needed items and collect research as it goes?
Update 2: We’re going to explore the van idea. I’ve re-written the article with this in mind. More ideas in the comments please.
