The poorest half of the world’s population owns only 2% of the world’s wealth, while the richest ten percent hold 76%. Since 1978, CEO pay in the United States has increased by 940 percent, while average worker pay has only increased by roughly 12%.
Billionaires have amassed so fortune that they can now play in space! Meanwhile, many people on Earth are on the verge of being homeless due to a lost income, an injury, or an illness. Around 40% of Americans are just one paycheck away from being poor.
But what if businesses and non-profits teamed up to solve some of the world’s problems? What if, rather than being viewed as ‘villains,’ our CEOs were viewed as heroes?
To help end homelessness, a charity called Beddown and Secure Parking is doing just that. After being laid off and looking for work in the non-profit sector, Norm McGillivary founded Beddown.
He wanted to start his own charity in the field of homelessness because he had been directly affected by it. McGillivray’s father suffered brain damage when he was two years old, leaving him largely paralyzed and unable to communicate. The father, who was a carpenter and operated a shopfitting company, was no longer able to work.
According to NRMA, McGillivray suffered a stroke in his early 30s. ‘My mother was a year or two younger than my father, and she was raising a small child, which is me.’
My father was severely disabled, which put a lot of strain on our relationship. They split up, divorced, and my father ended up sleeping on the streets of London.’
His father, who was 42 years old at the time, passed away of a heart attack while homeless. McGillivray, who was only 11 years old at the time, felt powerless and heartbroken.
Hundreds of individuals die each year as a result of homelessness, according to McGillivray, from sickness, and pneumonia.
To him, this was ‘inacceptable.’ So he set out to found an organization to assist the 8,200 individuals who sleep on the streets every night in Australia, while avoiding duplicating current programs for the poor.
McGillivray came up with the concept for Beddown while walking across an empty parking lot one day.
Clean, empty parking lots could be used as makeshift homeless shelters at night. As a result, he conducted a trial and raised funds for inflatable mattresses and bedding.
‘Collaboration with other service providers is a significant element of the concept,’ McGillivray explains. ‘We’ll bring in doctors, dentists, social workers, therapists, new clothing, hairstylists, meals and drinks, and a whole slew of other services to restore dignity, respect, self-esteem, and self belief to our guests, and then try to link them into longer-term solutions like education, training, work opportunities, housing, or rehabilitation,’ says the statement.
According to the Beddown website:
‘Beddown’s goal is to take locations that are often used and busy during the day but are left unused or deserted at night.’
Beddown then activates and repurposes the space at night into pop-up accommodation, allowing the homeless and those sleeping in the streets to come in and get a bed for the night.’
McGillivray was successful in persuading Secure Parking CEO Peter Anson, who controls over 600 car parks in Australia and New Zealand, to let him utilize his facilities.
‘A lot of not-for-profits contact big companies,’ Anson told 9News.com.au. ‘However, this struck a chord with me. I’ve had the opportunity to travel internationally, and [homelessness] can be found in all major capital cities, and it’s on the rise.
It’s tempting to dismiss it as too complicated, but I believe corporate Australia has an obligation to help and give back.’
Beddown was founded in 2019 and is currently expanding. They intend to expand their services throughout the country. They also want to expand their services to include education, training, job, rehabilitation, and affordable housing for people.
Their ultimate goal is to ‘speed up the end of Beddown’ and eliminate the necessity for their services. At beddown.org.au, you can donate to the organization and learn more about it.