Helping the Homeless and Their Pets

In a recent collaboration with Allie O'Neil, we read an article about a woman who has dedicated her life to helping the homeless and their pets.

Karen Hamza became homeless after the house she was living in became infested with mold, and she was forced to move out. With her dog Tippy by her side, Hamza started living in her 1988 Acura. For Almost two years, Hamza and her dog stayed in her car, through the freezing winters and the boiling summers, she described the experience as "it is like being in an oven. In the winter, it's like being in a literal freezer.". The cold weather negatively impacted her health, and Hamza reached one her lowest points. Thankfully, she found a small apartment suitable for her and Tippy. Once she was back on her feet, Hamza began to focus on helping others get out of the situation she was in.

 

In 2009, Hamza’s organization, Angel Hanz For The Homeless Inc., became registered as a nonprofit organization. Hamza immediately put her plan into action. At around the same time she met a homeless couple, Peggie and Herbie, who were struggling to support themselves and their pet cat. Hamza reached out to them and Hamza bought them cat food, blankets and some clothing. She then went further to offer Peggy and Herbie work in her organization and provided them with a pay of $10 an hour and the products they needed. In a year's time the couple was on their feet and living in an apartment. "I assisted them back into the mainstream of living," she said. "It's what we do. It's not like a handout, it's a hand up."

 

This is only the first of many of the homeless Hamza will help. She continues to help the homeless and their animals; encouraging them to bring their animals to attend her monthly gatherings at a local park. The now vegan organization provides food, clothing, blankets and her resource guide to help the homeless get themselves and their pets back on their feet. The organization also works to assist the homeless with veterinarian services, and keep the animals out of the area's kill shelters. Angel Hanz For the Homeless provides barber services and a library. She continues to educate through speaking engagements at schools, on television and on radio shows.

Hamza says that her own homelessness "made me want to help people all the more because I was so desperate and alone that I knew what it was like for no one to be there. My heart literally ached because no one was there for me." Today, she cares for her two rescue dogs, Jimmie and Rex, and continues to offer hope and solutions to countless homeless people and their animals, and lives by her organization's mantra, "Homeless Not Hopeless."

 

Hamza holds her rescued dog Jimmie while receiving a hug

from one of the homeless men she helped.