Backpacks full of supplies make their way to NYC's homeless

Brut America

Jayson Conner was once homeless and in need of critical supplies.   Today, he and his husband Jeffrey Newman run Backpacks For The Street, an organization that provides supplies for NYC's homeless population — all in one backpack.

Transcript

00:00Here's everything that you need in life in this book bag.

00:04It's basically everything a homeless person needs.

00:07Everything.

00:08Bathing, food, soap, wipes, food, food, razor.

00:13That's what I really need.

00:14It's about solutions. It's not just about the backpack.

00:17But it's also about the backpack.

00:19I was homeless.

00:29And I knew what I needed when I was on the street.

00:33And I knew what I wanted when I was on the street.

00:36So that's how we figured out everything that we needed to put into it.

00:39We also listened to the people that were on the streets.

00:42Jason has been coming here and working in Times Square.

00:51And just seeing the number of homeless every day.

00:54And seeing them.

00:55We both started coming out and giving food and blankets.

00:57And then we just felt like we weren't doing enough.

01:00And we felt we wanted to be doing more.

01:02Right now we're going to go head over to our storage unit.

01:05Where we make all the backpacks.

01:07So this section right over here is all the food that we put in the backpacks.

01:11There's about 45 to 50 different items depending on the season.

01:14Like for winter there's gloves, there's Mylar blankets.

01:28Once the city shut down, we realized that we needed to jump into gear.

01:31And the truth of the matter is, among the most vulnerable were the homeless.

01:35It was the elderly, the people with pre-existing conditions, and the homeless.

01:40The thing was, the only group that wasn't being taken care of was the homeless.

01:43They sort of got ignored.

01:45They already felt invisible as it was.

01:47So we thought we needed to jump in.

01:48And so we did.

01:49COVID has shown us anything.

01:50We're all one or two paychecks away from ending up in a shelter.

01:53Or on the street.

01:54Or losing our homes.

01:55Or losing our jobs.

01:56Or having lost all that.

01:58And not enough people are out there doing this.

02:01I've got hand sanitizer in here.

02:04Some first aid stuff.

02:05A flashlight.

02:06And I'll show you what I've got on the other end.

02:09It's socks.

02:10It's snacks.

02:11Is that stuff you can use?

02:13I'll take a couple of snacks.

02:15I'm going to leave the bag on you.

02:16Oh, okay.

02:17I'll take the whole thing.

02:21I'm pretty new to New York.

02:23And I was living in a shelter when I first got here.

02:25And then living on the street.

02:26So I was kind of already oriented towards being out here.

02:29And being in the environment.

02:31So when I met these guys, I fell in love with it the first time.

02:34So sometimes I see people I know and recognize.

02:38And it's meaningful in that way.

02:41The number one complaint I think of of people who are out here is that they feel invisible.

02:45They literally feel like nobody sees them.

02:47Or if they do see them, that they're literally less than.

02:51And we want people to realize, like you said, this is someone's mother.

02:55Someone's son.

02:56Someone's neighbor.

02:58These are human beings.

02:59And we will sit down with them and figure out what their needs are.

03:02How can we help them?

03:03It's not just about the backpack anymore.

03:05It's about the services and the solutions.

03:07And that's the most important part.

03:09And it's also just reminding them that they're not alone.

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