The reasons vary, but the results are the same. Unbearably crowded housing, domestic violence, eviction, addiction, and mental illness drive Philadelphians to live on streets and in shelters. Volunteers who have lacked housing bring to their work an especially deep understanding of those they serve. But, an open mind can enable even those who have never experienced homelessness to volunteer.

“You'd have to be willing to sacrifice your ideas and sacrifice your way of living for a couple hours,”said Mike Kravitz, a formerly homeless volunteer with Bethesda Project. Kravitz had been providing live-in care for his mother and became homeless when she died, he said. He moved through a series of shelters including one with conditions he still remembers with revulsion. “There's rats, mice, roaches. There's people there who want to kill you because they don't like the way you look,” said Kravitz, who spent last winter staffing a drop-in center run by Bethesda Project. A drop-in center offers food, coffee, referrals to services, and floor space for sleeping.

Kravitz and other volunteers have no shortage of people to help. Each day, about 4,000 people are homeless in the city, according to Project H.O.M.E. In 2005, about 15,000 people used city-run homeless shelters. Many parents of homeless children have economic and personal problems which make finding permanent housing difficult, according to a survey by the People's Emergency Center.

Inadequate wages, scant benefits, and lacking housing subsidies directly contribute to homelessness, according to the National Coalition for the Homeless. The federal government defines affordable housing as housing that costs less than 30% of the tenant's income—workers earning the minimum wage often must spend more than 30% on rent.

Homeless people face multiple daunting problems, and volunteers can help them along the path from being homeless to housed. People's Emergency Center volunteers assist homeless students with homework, tutor adults in literacy, organize holiday toy drives, and help at a summer camp. At Project H.O.M.E., volunteers make and serve food, mentor and tutor the homeless, and aid shelter residents with everyday tasks. The Bethesda Project uses volunteers to help with cleaning and painting as well as making and serving meals.

For volunteer information, call Rachel Washington at the People's Emergency Center at 215-382-7522 ext. 221, Erin O'Brien at Project HOME at 215-232-7272 ext. 3015, or the Bethesda Project at 215-985-1600.