Homeless men, women and children were evicted from Sacramento’s tent city last month, and while many people’s temporary shelters were senselessly destroyed by the city, one individual decided to build a large trailer out of shopping carts to help relocate his possessions.  James, the cart builder, found a creative solution to an unfortunate circumstance.  Here is his interview with Mark from Invisible People:

James from invisiblepeople.tv on Vimeo.

James’ cart offers a wonderful example of how cities could better help the homeless.  Everyone Deserves A Roof (EDAR) provides mobile shelters similar to James’ cart, only sturdier and with a few more features to help make the transition to more permanent housing.  Read the rest of this entry >>

Our friends at EDAR (Everyone Deserves A Roof) provide unique mobile shelters to people living on the streets. An alternative to cardboard boxes, alleys and underpasses, each EDAR is a four-wheeled mobile unit that resembles a reinforced shopping cart. It can carry belongings and facilitate recycling during the day and it unfolds into a special, framed tent-like sleeping enclosure with a bed at night. They are waterproof, very durable, and have much better wheels than the standard shopping cart which allows for increased mobility and an easier time recycling. TakePart had a chance to meet Peter Samuelson, the founder of EDAR, last Fall. Since Peter’s visit to our offices, EDAR has been gaining national attention with help from the LA Times, CBS, ABC and others.

While Peter fully recognizes the importance of more permanent living solutions for the homeless, we need a solution on how to serve the the more than 70,000 in Los Angeles County alone. In fact, EDAR units are often  being used as a “first step” into the homeless shelters for those that are typically reluctant to enter a traditional shelter system.

EDAR’s are given free of charge- when funds permit- to homeless people directly and through EDAR’s shelter partners. And they track the progress of the EDAR units through each of these partners.

DONATIONS

EDAR is thankful for generous supporters like you!

By donating to EDAR, your tax deductible donation allows us to provide EDAR shelters to more of the people who need them most.

Sponsor wheels: $50

Sponsor a frame: $75

Sponsor a mattress: $125

Sponsor a roof: $250

Sponsor one EDAR unit: $500

Sponsor ten EDAR units: $5,000

Sponsor twenty EDAR units: $10,000

Corporate sponsorship opportunities are available. Please email us for more information.

And be sure to text EDAR to ACTION (228466) for updates.

Learn how you can contribute to Everyone Deserves a Roof via PayPal, mail, or fax after the jump. Read the rest of this entry >>

EDAR — Everyone Deserves a Roof — was featured on NPR’s Marketplace this morning in a segment titled “For Homeless, a House With a Roof.” You can listen to the NPR piece here and read more about it on NPR’s Blog of the Nation.

Here is an excerpt from the radio interview from NPR’s Rob Schmitz:

Rob Schmitz: The idea for EDAR came to Hollywood producer Peter Samuelson on a bike ride last year. He noticed there were more homeless people than usual, and one of them gave him a tour of her make-shift home.

Peter Samuelson: There, behind the bushes was a large cardboard box. And it had been raining and it was wet. And it was smelly. And it was disgusting. And this was her home.

Samuelson sponsored a competition to invent an alternative, and the winner came up with the EDAR.

Selmia Magee zips open the canvas flap of her EDAR unit and peeks outside. Last night, she slept on the floor of the chapel at an overcrowded homeless shelter on LA’s Skid Row. The 7 foot-long tent is suspended inches off the cold ground by wheels. Its floor is a thin, firm mattress. Its ceiling, a beige water-proof canvas, is four feet tall.

Selmia Magee: And it has like these little windows that you can open up, right? And then you can just feel the mattresses, it’s really nice.

Whoopi Goldberg (Archman8 Flickr Photostream/Creative Commons)

Whoopi Goldberg mentioned our friends at SplashLife, an organization that launches this fall, on Thursday’s episode of The View:

“A great young lady came around and I met her. Her name is Melissa Helmbrecht Martin. She was a young woman who was failing in school, just not interested in life, not doing anything and she met up with a mentor who said if you really want to see what’s going on in the world go see what’s happening with the homeless. [...]  She started something called SplashLife which is basically, you know how AARP can reach any person over fifty? Well SplashLife is meant to reach out to (Millennials) for anything that they may need.  It’s free.  It’s a website that will help kids through some of these periods ‘cause one of the things that they don’t have is that there’s not a community. You know, to talk to, to talk about it, just to unburden and what we saw when this teacher shot this piece was that kids are just…. they’re at the brink. … So what you can do: I’m encouraging everybody to go over to Splashlife.com and see what they’re doing, see what you can do because it doesn’t cost you anything. You don’t need money.”
Read the rest of this entry >>

Hot on the trails of Whoopi Goldberg’s mention of Splashlife earlier today on The View, tomorrow night’s 20/20 features a segment called “Life on the Edge: The New Homeless.” EDARs, temporary shelters for the homeless, are featured as the solution for the increase in families coming to the Union Rescue Mission for shelter. The Mission, currently LA’s biggest homeless shelter, ordered an additional 46 EDARs due to the sharp rise in families coming to them for assistance, half of whom are homeless for the first time. They are even converting the chapel into an emergency shelter, similar to Red Cross.

Did you know that you can give a homeless family a shelter for just $500? Times are tough for everyone, but the true integrity of a country is always measured by how it treats its underpriviledged. TakePart and watch the preview for tomorrow’s 20/20 segment that airs at 10 pm.

Here are photos of Montgomery from EDAR - Everyone Deserves A Roof.

Read the rest of this entry >>

email: info@splashlife.com / twitter: @splashlife / fax: 323.315.5188

Launching in September 2009, Splashlife is devoted to empowering youth, working with nonprofit and corporate partners to enable its members to take action for social change.  The organization’s first campaign, “Hunger and homelessness in America,” will address the increasing number of homeless people in a time of epic uncertainty in our country. Splashlife is partnering with EDAR (Everyone Deserves a Roof) to raise awareness about solutions to homelessness. For more information on EDAR visit our page devoted to the nonprofit.

EDAR provides temporary housing for the homeless.

We were elated to see that EDAR, or Everyone Deserves a Roof, is getting more national coverage today, this time with a story on the home page of CNN.com. The coverage comes the same day that the National Center on Family Homelessness (via AP) released new data. Perhaps the most shocking is that one in 50 American children experience homelessness.

As we discussed in several posts last year, EDAR uses smart, functional, cost-effective design to address one of the most urgent issues facing us today—homelessness.  The nonprofit gives homeless people an sense of pride in ownership along the way to more permanent housing.

To quote Samuelson’s comment on our post from October 2008, here’s how you can takepart:

Thanks to TakePart.com for doing this! If anyone out there would like to help, here’s what we need right now:

1. Money. Every $492 gets one man, woman or child off damp concrete. http://www.edar.org Tax deductible!

2. Use of a slightly flat piece of land in greater Los Angeles, like a parking lot or waste land, where EDAR’s can park at night and be left in the daytime if necessary. We’d hire 24/7 security to supervise. We’d install toilets, a phone and a shower. Does not need to be for ever: 9 months or a year would be a good start. julie@edar.org to action a look-see on that. Read the rest of this entry >>

Our amazing friends at EDAR have been receiving a lot of media attention recently. Here are some of the highlights:

Tents On Wheels Give Homeless People Roof and Pride from CNN.com

A Roof on Wheels for the Homeless on CBS Evening News with Katie Couric

Read the rest of this entry >>

Early in October, we introduced Peter Samuelson and his non-profit, Everyone Deserves a Roof (EDAR) in a video we made during his visit to our offices.

The LA Times published a fabulous profile of Peter and EDAR yesterday, including interviewing some homeless men and woman who sleep in EDARs every night.

Read the entire article “Upgrading From A Cardboard Box for the Homeless” and this accompanying video: