Homeless Help or Homeless Scam?

Currently the amount of homeless people within the inland empire grows upwards of 2,000. What can be done? the best resource for homeless people has always been the Salvation Army. The Salvation Army has been known for "Doing the most good". From Providing relief to victims of the San Diego fires to providing a hot meal to a homeless person. Within the last couple of years the salvation army has not received enough funds to provide continual help to the homeless. With out enough resources where will the homeless turn to for assistance?

There are many Homeless programs out there within the Inland empire. We took the time to investigate some. One of them being the House of Luke Ministries of Valley vista CA. The House of Luke Ministries are a Men's Christian discipleship home. The main goal of the House Of Luke Ministries is "to be able to restore the lives of men in a godly manner". along with other goals such as "to teach men to serve Christ", to teach men responsibility", to teach men job skills" and to "teach men to let Jesus restore their lives & Families". This sounds like a very good out reach program to help lost men get back on track. But! this savior comes with a price tag. There is a monthly fee of $400.00usd to cover room and board along with requiring the donation of 75% of all earnings to the ministry. If the typical homeless person could land a typical minimum wage job grossing about $300.00usd a week and average that out by 4.5 weeks a month he/she is looking to make about 1350.00usd a month before taxes which means on top of the $400.00usd the minimum wage earner would have to pay an additional $1012.50usd giving a total of $1412.50usd a month. How is this helping someone? the typical 3 bedroom house for rent within the valley vista area runs about $1200 a month not to mention several apartment complexes renting studios out for as low as $450.00 a month. It seems to me a homeless person would be better off getting his own apartment and attending the Sunday service.

The next time you see a volunteer for the salvation army outside of Target or your local grocery store, drop in that loose change. Heck it will probably just end up between some seat cushions anyhow. Yes its true a couple of dollars will not solve the worlds problems but its a start and it can do allot of good for those less fortunate. It could even help prevent someone from being taken advantage of by facilities such as The House Of Luke .