Tents For The Homeless: Woman Tackles Homelessness Head-On
SACRAMENTO (CBS13) — Gloria Wadud has spent years riding around the City of Sacramento and decided to take the issue of homelessness head-on, saying she wanted to be part of the solution, not the problem.
She's decided to buy as many tents for the homeless as possible and not just any tents.
"I won't stop," said Wadud. "I need exactly 1,998.00 to purchase 110 tents to give to people living on the streets."
Wadud felt that donated food wasn't enough so she started a fundraiser on Facebook called House the Homeless. The fundraiser took off.
"People just started donating I'm like wow good." she said.
Her goal of $1,000 was easily met, so she raised it to $2,000 because she said individual corporations declined to help. But it was the donations that got the ball rolling and she went to work.
"I called Amazon," she said. "I seen a nice tent. It was like 20 bucks and I said okay I can get 110 tents with this."
Her team of 12 volunteers donated the green tents to encampments throughout Sacramento leaving those on the receiving end grateful. One recipient was David Trenheiser a homeless veteran.
"She seemed like a really nice lady," said Trenheiser. "I wasn't sure if she was here with a husband or not, but we got the last 3 tents."
The tents are as bright as Gloria's smile, and she admits it's not enough.
"It's not really housing them, but it's getting them off the concrete," said Wadud.
She even managed to give everyone a touch of home.
"I had extra money, so I said okay, I'll buy Sharpies so everyone that got a tent got a Sharpie so they could write their names on it," she said.
Trenheiser paid his gift forward and donated his tent to another homeless friend who is legally blind.
Gloria is now working on "House the Homeless" part two and faces a new problem.
"I bought them out of all their green tents," Wadud said. "They only have 4 left and they're not the green. I like their camouflage."
For Gloria, it's a nice problem to have, but she still hopes some corporations will decide to help out.
