HomeMoreness and S.O.C.Ks.
The homeless represent the most vulnerable portion of Americans living in poverty. The richest country in the world has almost 600,000 homeless as of 2022, while housing units sit vacant across the U.S. The top four causes of homelessness, in order, are:
1) lack of affordable housing;
2) unemployment;
3) poverty; and
4) low wages.
SWIM’s signature program to address homelessness is called homemoreness in which we deal with these four societal maladies to create a state of homemoreness. The program’s slogan is For Humanity’s Sake. Homemoreness launches in early 2023.
In 2022, California has the largest homeless population with about 161,548 representing about twenty-eight (28%) percent of the total homeless population in the U.S. You may ask yourself how does a state who has the largest economy in the U.S., boasting a $3.4 trillion gross state product as of 2021, have a homeless problem? In fact, if California were a sovereign nation (2021), it would rank as the world’s fifth largest economy, behind Germany and ahead of the India. Homelessness takes a toll on the economy, environment, health care and criminal justice systems, and the lives of fellow human beings. This is a dichotomy that must be solved. The sections that follow are components of . Each component of homemoreness addresses the causes of homelessness.
Lack of Affordable Housing
California is one of the most expensive states to live. In the table below, there is a correlation between how expensive it is to live in a city as opposed to the homeless population. That is, the most expensive places to live are also some of the same areas with the highest homeless population. It also gives credence to people used to have homes in the city in which they are homeless.
S.O.C.Ks
Socks consistently rank as the number one item requested by homeless people.
According to a study of homeless shelters, the homeless overwhelmingly prefer men’s white crew socks over all other colors. As a signature program of SWIM, we distribute socks to homeless shelters and the homeless population at large, through our S.O.C.K.S. (Spreading Our Care through Kindnesses) program. Through S.O.C.Ks., we participate in Socktober, an annual event held nationally, to distribute socks to the homeless population at the advent of fall and winter. SWIM currently participates in these California counties—Lake, Los Angeles, Sacramento, with plans to expand the scope of counties covered in 2023. SWIM volunteers will knock on doors in their neighborhood to ask parents and households to provide socks to trick or treaters on Halloween for donation to the homeless population.
