Healthycity.org: Online Directory for Homeless Resources

A great one-stop online directory for homeless resources such as free meals, medical care, and emergency shelter is the HEALTHYCITY.ORG website. This contains a searchable database on a wide variety of services for homeless and non-homeless alike. The main menu at the top lists Services, Maps, Data, etc. For the homeless look at Services.

Under Services there are the following categories:

Basic Needs

   Food

   Housing/Shelter

   Material Goods

   Transportation

   Utilities

Consumer Services

Criminal Justice and Legal Services

Education

Environment and Public Health/Safety

Health Care

Income Support and Employment

Individual and Family Life

Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services

Organizational/Community/International Services

Nonprofit Headquarters

For how this works, take the most immediate need: Food. At the top of the search screen there is a box for Type of Geography. The search can begin with an address, a street intersection, or a zip code. Then there is a list on the right of types of food outlet, such as Emergency Food, Grocery Delivery, etc. For the homeless the best choice is the last one: Meals. This lists churches and nonprofits that provide free meals for the homeless.

There are similar setups for Health Care, Income Support and Employment, and Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services.

Below is a sample screen of a search in zip code 90037 for Services/Basic Needs/Food/Meals