Homeless Exhibit
or
"Homeless Man"
Homeless Man first exhibited in Union St Ryde, Isle of Wight 2019 . The Sleeping bag was later
either stolen...... or taken by a genuine homeless person.
Invairably there are numerous tragic reasons why someone becomes homeless, and it is hard for 'Homeless Charities' to personally give their raised/donated money to individual homeless people. This invairably will make homeless people cynical that Homeless Charities who are supposedly helping them are instead making a living out of them and likewise earning salaries which in turn gives them security and roof over their own heads! ( a classic example of Ouroboros )
Charities like Shelter have raised over 60 million pounds since 1996 with overheads of 20 million or roughly 1/3.
A.Nonymous have created this "Homeless Exhibit" also known as "Homeless Man" as a direct way of by passing the charities rake off.
The Homeless Exhibit notice used in Ryde 2019
With very little expenditure it is easy to obtain a used sleeping bag, a used flatterned cardboard box, some used food packaging and produce an A4 or A3 laminated sign. Then you next need to find a property in your local high street which has an accessible portch or with a strip of land before the pavement starts. You must ask the landlord (or the leaseholder of the shop who may not have yet moved in, or has recently left, as they still may have the power to give consent to legally allow you to create a similar exhibit to raise funds and help genuine homeless people locally.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=af2Wzd3p7nY
"The road to Hell is paved with Good Intentions...."
If you are interested in helping the homeless, or wish to generate funds for your own Homeless Charity or a Homeless Charity you wish to support..... we urge you to try this.....IT WORKS!!!! I sugest you do not pick a known homeless person as we did with our first exhibit without asking them first as some homeless people do not want charity bestowed upon them.......
(When we had made the first £20 we then took it to the homeless man under the flyover at Chiswick Roundabout. It was mid afternoon in June, and as one of us approached his area. They found him lying on the ground, relaxed, leaning his back against the railings while he basked in the sunshine. He had a copy of the "Sporting Life" ( An equestrian betting newspaper giving tips on faster or slower ways to invairably lose your money, home and ultimately the very shirt off your back!) was draped over his head to shade him from the Sun, he was snoozing.....respecting his space, the Group Member kept their distance and called out to him, he quickly sat up pulling away the newspaper from his head, and eyed them cautiously. The Group Member was holding out a £20 note and gestured he take and continued to talk to him, clearly because of either his poor hearing or the ongoing traffic he had not heard the Group Member, as he asked if he was being given the £20 note in exhange for a racing tip on a horse! When explained that the people of Ryde had given it to him as he was homeless, he froze then quickly rose to his feet, the Group Member then tried to explain to him that he had been here for such a long time that he would probably have squatters rights...... however, started to rant and was clearly not interested in listening, in addition to this he then proceeded to tear up the £20 note into two squares then immediately again to make smaller and smaller squares which then he promptly threw like confetti at the Member who had started to back away, next he ran quickly towards his plywood shelter.... even his pidgeon companions used to his presence, scattered quickly, the Member stepped back further....and started to retreat knowing that trouble was about to happen.... the man next grabbed a large blackened catering sized tin which the Member was soon to find out contained liquid and advanced toward Member and at the same time hurled it at them as they retreated...as the water ascended they took full flight and managed to avoid most of the contents.
What an presumptious group of fools we were to preseume he would want our efforts of collecting money for him due to being homeless.......We had such plans, had he welcomed our interest in him we would have used the funding to purchase & convert a 20ft x8ft x8ft shipping container with glass roof and secure locks etc and bedeck the inside as a small studio and printed valid legal notices on the outside addressed to the Dpt. of Highways that the owner of the shipping crate has taken possession of the land under squatters rights.......)
After collecting for the gentleman at Chiswick Roundabout, we next allocated the collection for an Isle of Wight food bank but when we contacted them and left a message that we were collecting on their behalf......they never called us back.
When in London, we contacted Center Point and stated we were collecting on their behalf, and once again gave them our contact details.....again no one contacted us.
Despite the lack lustre responce from the two Charities when offered money, who were either too disorganised or too lethargic to contact us, we still have great faith in the Homelessness Exhibit generating thousands if not millions of pounds directly for homeless people or a willing charity associated with homelessness. We urge you to replicate this idea to help homeless people in your area.
Suggestions:
1. Use a piece of wood/ply to screw coffee cup, and used food packaging securly together, this will prevent them blowing away and your possibly being fined for littering! place wood under cardboard sheet and screw (with washer) items down thru cardboard so wood/ply is not seen. This will prevent the cup/sign being taken and the exhibit becoming inactive.
2. We suggest you monitor from a distance who is taking the money from the cup, opportunist children may take advantage. And sadly a group of teenagers/young adults wrecked the exhibit and took the money from the Ryde exhibit late on a weekend evening ( Union St does go wild on Friday & Saturday night) . If this happens I suggest you empty the cup regulary to make it not worth their while.
3. If the same homeless person keeps coming to take the money.....LET THEM, it is giving them the chance to do something hopefully of more benefit for their futue than begging directly themselves.
4. We found some people seeing the exhibit and not reading the sign were believing it was a genuine homeless person, and then going to a food outlet and buying a bag of food and leaving it alongside the sleeping bag. I suggest you leave an additional sign in red saying 'Please leave no food!' the paradox of two opposite things in the same area will make those who normally ignore a homeless person look again. One young man left a considerable bag of food he had purchased minutes before, when we ran after him to return it and explained that it was an exhibit, he stated he thought a real person was inside the sleeping bag, he then explained he was donating because his father later in life became homeless.....
5. On one day in Ryde, we generated £16.10 which for Union St, Ryde - out of season - is pretty remakable. Do this in a populated town or city and you will generate £1,000's.
6. Contact Charity shops and house clearance specialists to request often unsellable sleeping bag. They will save them money not paying to dump them commercially.
7. If you have a regular source of sleeping bags now coming in, leave several clean examples each night alongside the exhibit. Use the rest to make more exhibits.
8. If you are homeless, you should consider doing this yourself.
It is truly humbling when you see people leaving money for a charity or homeless person to collect it.
Please let us know how you get on. Place your video footage on youtube, facebook, instagram etc, and urge others to do the same.
Best of Luck
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To Be continued....
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