Reconnecting The Homeless With Family Via Social Media

Brut America

Do you believe in miracles? This San Francisco nonprofit does — and they're betting their video messages will also make believers out of homeless people disconnected from their loved ones.

Transcript

00:00Hi honey, how are you doing?

00:10Are you okay?

00:14Yeah, I'm doing fine.

00:30We're seeing homeless people not as problems to be solved, but as people to be loved, and

00:41seeing them as someone's somebody.

00:43Hi dad, it's Lacey.

00:44I want to say happy birthday.

00:47I miss you and I love you.

00:49Please contact me soon.

00:50I really would like to talk to you again.

00:53Joey, Eliza, listen.

00:55Sorry I weren't there for you.

00:57I did a lot of time in prison.

00:59I love you both.

01:01Don't forget dad loves you.

01:11So I started Miracle Messages in honor of my uncle.

01:15Mark was kind of one of my favorite family members.

01:19I remembered every birthday, guest of honor at Thanksgiving and Christmas.

01:22He also suffered from schizophrenia and lived on and off the streets for 30 years.

01:28But I never looked at Uncle Mark as a homeless man because he's my uncle.

01:33And so after he passed away, I just started thinking, everyone I'm walking by, this is

01:38someone's son or daughter, someone's brother, sister, someone's uncle.

01:41And what is this backstory?

01:57My God!

01:58Where have you been?

02:00I'm alright.

02:01I'm fine.

02:02Look at you.

02:03I'm so good.

02:04I'll get you up.

02:07Oh, Michael.

02:08Where the hell have you been?

02:10We've been so worried.

02:12Jesus.

02:13I'm okay.

02:14I'm okay.

02:15Once I started listening to people on the streets and realizing that, yeah, people need

02:21food, water, shelter, clothing, housing.

02:24But they also need love and belonging and sense of nourishment and self-esteem and purpose.

02:35We made it.

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