An Introduction to Mutual Aid
What is mutual aid?
At its simplest, mutual aid is when people in a community directly help each other to solve their problems. Importantly, mutual aid is neither charity nor a transaction; the point is to build relationships within a community, a network of support united by solidarity and shared experience. For example, you may have heard of Food Not Bombs, which mitigates food waste and hunger by recovering food that would otherwise be discarded and using it to make meals for those who need them. That description is very broad, and in addition to helping the houseless or generally food insecure, FNB also aids in natural disaster recovery and provides food at protests.
Most mutual aid projects aren’t as large as FNB, nor does mutual aid have to involve food. Using any knowledge you might have from training or experience to help others is also mutual aid. Helping them navigate government services, giving them free legal, medical, or technical advice (that you are qualified to give), or even just giving someone a ride to an appointment or an errand when they need one is also mutual aid. A lot of these things are also provided by charitable organizations, but mutual aid cuts out the middleman, broadens the scope, and allows for the possibility that the people you help can and will help you too.
I recently had the opportunity to go out on a supply run with a mutual aid organization in a large city. The organization partnered with a local church to store their supplies, and would distribute those supplies to the homeless on a weekly basis. Transit was tricky for a number of reasons, but luckily I had a friend who was reasonably comfortable driving in city traffic who was willing to give me a ride. It was unclear how many people were going to show up to help out until the last minute, though my friend said that there were usually some reliable regulars, even if they didn’t always RSVP. The whole run was done over a few hours one evening, after the overall group split up to about a dozen known encampments.
What kinds of things do you distribute on a mutual run for houseless folks?
The organization I was with had a “standard package” that they distributed to most people, though this generally meant folks would pick and choose what they needed at the moment out of that package and leave the rest so that they wouldn’t have to lug around unnecessary weight. This baseline package includes:
- a roll of toilet paper
- a pack of baby wipes
- a pair of socks
- water bottles
- a first aid kit
- hygiene supplies, such as toothbrushes, shaving cream, shampoo, etc
- batteries, usually AA or AAA to power appliances or handheld devices
- a camping tent
- camping stoves and canisters of butane for cooking and warmth
- non-perishable food items, like granola bars and chips
- some health supplies, such as tampons
Some people would make specific requests for clothing or health supplies that we didn’t have. One woman asked for a pair of shoes to replace her current ones, which were breaking down; we were luckily able to find a suitable pair for her in the supplies we brought. Clothing requests were sometimes difficult to accommodate because of size and style requests (e.g., color). We had extra coats and sweaters that we could hand out for those who needed them, but most of the people we visited already had several layers from prior donations and finds. A frequent request we weren’t prepared for was charger cables; we had batteries, but several people had rechargeable devices they’d lost the cables for.
How do you know what other things houseless folks might need?
Sometimes, you can predict special requests based on seasonal issues; one perhaps obvious example is that the wintertime made stoves and butane a much more widespread and urgent request. But mostly, you just have to ask, though this can be a bit trickier than it sounds. Houseless people are in a pretty desperate position and are often let down, so if you make or imply a promise that falls through, it can seriously damage the trust needed to be able to have those conversations in the first place. In the worst case scenario, they might write you off for a long time, limiting your ability to help them later.
To deal with this, my friend stressed that when you are asking houseless folks what kinds of things they need, you have to make it clear that you are only collecting information and not making any guarantees or immediate offers. One good way to broach that conversation is to ask questions in the general format of, “We’re looking into getting X, would that interest you?” Being attentive to specific requests is also necessary, though again it’s important not to imply a promise you won’t or can’t keep.
Are there any things you shouldn’t distribute?
One point my friend brought up is that you should not distribute items if you’re not reasonably sure the intended recipient(s) will be there to pick them up soon. Leaving items unattended to be picked up at will risks that the items are hoarded or, worse, thrown away and wasted. There also may be items you expect people to want that they don’t; I was kind of surprised to hear from my friend that their org does offer covid masks, but most people don’t ask for them. What’s most important is that you are open-minded and responsive to the requests of the people you’re actually trying to help, regardless of what assumptions you have about what they need and want.
One thing my friend stressed is that you should not bring hot food or other perishable items unless you are prepared to dispose of leftovers and trash right away. Otherwise, it will attract rats and other pests, and make already difficult living conditions even less livable, if not forcing the folks at that site to leave.
Why don’t houseless folks use shelters or other services?
It might not be the case that homeless shelters are widely distributed enough in your city to be accessible by the houseless, or they might not be known about widely. Even if they are, shelter policies can impose constraints that can be difficult for houseless people to navigate. Many shelters have curfews, severely restricting houseless people’s freedom to move around. Some shelters don’t allow pets, which would force houseless folks to abandon their dogs. Shelters also don’t always accommodate large inventories of stuff, which could force folks to throw away some of the items they’ve accumulated, whether they really need them or not.
Unfortunately, there’s also the issue that the thing houseless people are often most afraid of is other houseless people. Theft between houseless folks does happen from time to time, which is to be expected in such difficult circumstances. Houseless folks often perceive each other as threatening and don’t like to be in concentrated groups where they might not be able to protect all their things. Mental illness could also make it difficult for some houseless folks to be around or get along with each other, making those environs even more stressful.
Are houseless folks dangerous?
There are a lot of lurid stories about violence by the houseless and the mentally ill, but in my experience (on this run and in my general life), mental illness rarely drives violent behavior in and of itself; the mentally ill are radically more likely to be victims than perpetrators of violence, and this is only compounded by houselessness. With a little thought, this makes sense; mental illness often involves the loss of certain emotional or psychological capacities that neurotypical people take for granted. Even disorders characterized by manic behavior usually make the person with the illness more of a danger to themselves through reckless behavior or impaired judgment than to those around them through aggression. Not that this never happens or cannot happen, but it’s exceedingly unlikely to experience violence from a houseless person if you are not houseless yourself.
Houseless people are also especially targeted by the police. Many large city police departments right now are pursuing a policy of aggressively raiding houseless encampments as frequently as possible, effectively chasing the houseless around the city and making their already precarious lives even more unstable. If houseless folks are unlucky enough to draw the direct attention of a cop, they are likely to suffer direct violence. Even in the neighborhood I was distributing supplies in, where the cops put signs up near encampments declaring the date of a future raid and constantly push that date back, the signs serve as a lingering threat. In the name of keeping the peace, the cops simply refuse to let houseless folks have theirs.
On the supply run I went on, I never once felt threatened by any of the people we gave supplies to, or anyone else in the encampments. There were those who were clearly dealing with some kind of mental illness or trauma, but even at their most energetic, they mainly just wanted to talk: understandable, for some of the most ignored and dismissed people in our society. The things that stuck out to me were eccentricities that had nothing apparent to do with their situation. I met one woman who was very picky about the colors she wore, for whatever reason, and had managed to assemble a monochrome sweatsuit. There was one man who towered over me (and I am pretty tall) dressed in what seemed like a mismatched jumble of styles and jewelry, and who appeared by coincidence just as one of my friends was recalling a story about him. There was a young man (or at least, he seemed young to me since he was small, soft-spoken, and seemed to be buried under his own coat) who told us about the website he was making during sessions at the library, where he described the findings of his Bible study. Mostly, they were just people who happened to be in need of help.
If there’s one thing I hope you take away from this post, it’s that mutual aid can actually be pretty easy. If you’re worried there’s nothing you can do to help houseless people because of how bad they’ve got it, then you can rest assured that that’s not true; at the very least, you and a few friends can gather some basic supplies to make their life a little easier. There’s a lot to do to make a world where nobody is houseless, but to build the networks of support united by solidarity and shared experience capable of making that world, we have to start by doing the little things for each other. This is one way you can help.