Please Help Me Raise $75 For A Bus Ticket For A Homeless Young Man (Goal Reached!)
Early Wednesday morning, on the way to/from the grocery store, I saw a young man sitting at a cafe table at a Washington Ave business that wasn’t open yet. As I passed by both times he looked out of place, you just don’t see young men wearing football shorts & jersey at 7am with a couple of bags in tow. He looked out of it.
After I put away my groceries I decided to return to the spot, I brought a banana for him and I wrote the address of The Bridge on a post-it attached to my business card. I nervously approached him, asking if he was ok. He wasn’t, he was dropped off in St. Louis a day or two earlier by Rolla, Missouri police. He’d spent the previous night a Larry Rice’s New Life Evangelistic Center. They put everyone back on the street at 6:30am. He was in shock at his predicament: a 22 year old from an upper middle-class family in Washington state now homeless in downtown St. Louis.
I took him to The Bridge at 16th & Olive so he could get something for breakfast and hopefully some assistance. I looked him up on Facebook and friended him, he’d accept later when he got to the library to use a computer for the 2 hour maximum.
He came to Missouri for a year-long drug & alcohol rehab program located in Cabool MO (south of Ft. Leonard Wood), but got kicked out after 10 months for failing once to comply with their rigorous schedule. He’s clean & sober, trying to rebuild his life. He’s trying to get to Milwaukee WI where another young guy he met at the rehab center lives with his parents, they’ll take him in and help him get work.
You’re right to be skeptical about his story, but everything he’s told me checks out. His family on Facebook want nothing to do with him.
Thursday I bought him travel-size toiletries, let him shower, shave, made him lunch, let him do laundry, and use a computer. He stayed through dinner when he returned to NLEC for the night. He tried Travelers Aid on Tucker, they’ll only pay 25% less a $10 fee.
So I’m trying to get this young man on a bus, and off our streets. I’m afraid to much time in his current situation and he’ll return to alcohol & drugs. My goal is $75 total, $65.50 for the ticket and $10 in pocket cash/pre-paid card.
Here’s how I got to $75:
Donation Total:
I’ll update the donation total below and delete the donation buttons once the $75 goal is reached. If 15-16 people would give $5 each this morning I can have him on a bus this afternoon! In the event something happens and he doesn’t need a ticket I’ll donate the funds to The Bridge. Thank you for your help!
— Steve Patterson
Donation Total after PayPal fees:
- $0.00 (5:45am)
- $72.52 (6:01am)
- $81.93 (7:35am)
Now I just have to track him down! – SP
Thank you for being an angel on earth Steve. Too bad the police in Rolla didn’t do something similar and he could’ve avoided St. Louis altogether.
Rarely do I encounter a homeless person that I feel I can help, most need progressional help. I just hope I can find him — or he finds me.
You’re a better person than I Steve. If I had a dollar for every sob story I hear I’d be a millionaire. It has made me jaded and I just don’t hand out money anymore. The wife and I give via monthly paycheck deduction to the United Way and leave it at that.
I see homeless daily, I’ll say hello but not much more. However, when I see someone so clearly new on the streets I want to get them off the streets ASAP.
If you went with him to the bus terminal, he could buy the ticket in person with cash and then have $18 more for incidentals.
Except the “web fare” is about half the regular ticket price.
Oh well.. I tried.
That was my initial thought too, I wouldn’t give him cash but I’d have taken cash to the tisket counter.
Interesting…
The price of a ticket for Amtrak is the same both online and at the ticket desk. A couple weeks ago, I needed to leave on short notice for Chicago, checked online for times/prices (4:30pm same-day for $22) and bought the ticket at the counter for that price.
Kind of surprised Greyhound functions differently…
Mr. Patterson, I salute you. You overcame the ingrained cynicism regarding homeless in our sick society, and helped someone out. Even if you don’t find him again, you’ve done more than most of us have or will, beyond throwing money at an aid org. Oh, and to the Rolla PD:
You are some sick F***S! Castration is too good for you, you worthless degenerates!
Sadly, what the Rolla pigs did happens all too often in this sick country.
Thank you, he got a hold of me on Facebook finally. His brother’s wife’s brother lives in Springfield MO, so he drove up to get him. In a few days they’ll drive back this way to get the rest of his clothes from the rehab center. Once he’s in St. Louis I’ll purchase the bus ticket to Wisconsin and escort him up the bus station to see him off.
To be fair, the story doesn’t say whether the Rolla police officer was passing the buck or not. Maybe the man told this officer he needed to get to St. Louis, and the officer obliged?
in light of how things turned out for this young man i’m happy he was dropped off in STL. however, how in the hell is it acceptable for Rolla cops to dump homeless in St. Louis without even bothering to contact homeless services? i’d heard that Chicago does this as well, though i don’t know if it’s true. there’s got to be some way to prevent/reduce this. i wonder if Larry Rice encourages it.
when i lived in Florida in the mid 90’s i helped my parents with a homeless outreach program. a couple of guys we got to know used to tell me about how the police down there would do this same thing, only with vans. The West Palm Beach cops would load up a bunch of homeless guys and drop them off in Ft. Lauderdale or maybe Miami. Those respective police would then return the favor. sickening.
Anyone who thinks this doesn’t happen in any of our cities is just fooling themselves. It’s always someone else’s problem. Sad.