I work in downtown Seattle these days, and I’m constantly surrounded by homeless people. I don’t know if there is more homelessness here than in other cities, but it’s definitely ever-present. I see these people every day, and they’re always on my mind.

I think one of the reasons that it’s so heart-breaking for me is that it seems like a problem without a solution. I don’t know how to help these people. So many of them are riddled with mental or physical disease, that I don’t feel like the few bucks that I could spare for any individual could possibly help them dig themselves out of their hole, even if they are in the right mind enough to use it wisely.

I wish I knew of some reliable charitable organization, something that seemed like it was actually making a difference. Maybe there’s something that at least consistently relieves the suffering of these people, even if making a difference in solving the problem itself is an impossible task. Maybe you have a suggestion of what I should do to help.

So, because I don’t know what else to do, and because I’m constantly worried about them, I’m going to write on my blog about it. I had started writing some stories in this post to explain how I feel, but it quickly started getting too long to read. So instead I’ve taken out the stories and I’ll post them separately over the next few days.