In October of 2015, founder
Jonathan Kumar stood on a street
corner in downtown Seattle…
He watched a man beg for 20 minutes as not a single car opened a window for him. The man, Edward, stood there painfully, seeking diabetes medication for his feet after recently ending up on the street.
As person after person passed the man by, Jonathan eventually approached him and had a conversation with him. It was then that Jonathan realized this man was experiencing not just financial poverty, but a profound sense of relational poverty.
Many urban citygoers continually confront homelessness, but are caught without time, cash, or wherewithal on if cash will help. “I want to help. I’m unsure how.” These and other barriers lead to the easiest response: do nothing. And so, individuals without a home are told 100s of times an hour that they don’t exist.
Samaritan exists to link these individuals to the social and financial capital needed to meet housing and health goals. In parallel, their stories will truly change the lives of their neighbors passing by them on a daily basis.
Samaritan doesn’t own any apartment buildings or shelters. But if Samaritan can’t guarantee everyone a physical house yet, it’ll begin by providing anyone a social home. It’s not about “changing the world”; it’s about changing someone’s world, right now. And that’s a start.
