BigShinyThing

The site says:

There are a lot of homeless people in Venice, CA. I walked past one guy in particular to and from work every day. It wasn’t until I learned his name, Robertson, that I stopped looking at him as a panhandler, but a person that I wanted to know more about and help. I wondered if my experience could work on a larger scale.

In an effort to give homeless individuals names and put the growing homeless issue in the face of the public and politicians, more than 5,000 Hello My Name Is… signs are being distributed around the world to those living on the streets. Holding a sign with their own handwritten name, the individuals are being photographed for this website, several exhibitions, a book, public service announcements, and more.

We can use the best, most effective methods available to help homeless men, women, and children experience real change in their lives. But unless we stop seeing them as a separate category of people called “the homeless,” even our best efforts will be useless.

– Excerpt from the Los Angeles Mission’s newsletter

As a plan, it’s surely more constructive than various attempts to use homeless people as advertising space - a plan which effectively pays people to live on the streets.

Story via Wooster.