Coat Donation For Homeless.

Yes I would donate it the homeless. As has already been said a warm coat with a dodgy zip is miles better than no coat at all.

If you donate it to a charity shop. Someone will buy it even if it has a dodgy zip. People don't always buy clothes to wear but to reuse the fabric , trimmings etc .

Before I moved house I had 3 good quality clean duvets I wanted to give to a homeless shelter they refused them saying they don't take second hand but if I gave them the money they would buy new ones.

I got in touch with an animal charity they had them like a shot saying they would make them small but be ideal of the animals in there care as they where warm but lightweight and washable .

I got in touch with the Salvation army about 2 young men who where homeless in the town where I used to live as one was unwell. They informed there where no homeless in the town . I pointed out I had spoke to them that morning. I am an atheist but got in touch with a local church which helped the homeless they thanked me . Later they phoned me to let me know the young man who was ill had pneumonia and was being taken care of and both the men had been given accommodation in a shelter.

I know this is off track of the OP's question. But this is my experience .

Thanks for all comments.

DH has today dropped the coat off at the collection point for donations for homeless.

Hope someone finds it useful.

Honeyrose
If you have clothes with a fault that can’t be repaired ( usually by me 😉) please donate for the rag bag.
We get good coats with zip problems. We put it out at a really reduced price so that customers can decide.

Well done Whiff.

MerylStreep

Honeyrose
If you have clothes with a fault that can’t be repaired ( usually by me 😉) please donate for the rag bag.
We get good coats with zip problems. We put it out at a really reduced price so that customers can decide.

I just donated some good (a couple of new) clothes to the charity shop plus a small bag clearly labelled 'Rags' as I know that shop gers mone for them.

They didn't want soft toys but I see some more battered ones for sale on Ebay for quite a bit of money.

gers mone 😁
gets money

Glad you donated to a collection point - likelihood is that they use donations to raise money. My daughter manages a cluster of charity shops for a local hospice. They have a very professional attitude to sorting, repairing and placing for best sales distribution. On a related matter, please do not give directly to homeless. I attended some talks given by Crisis and the local authority homeless unit. If people donate directly (including the odd coin) this is likely just to feed an addiction. Certainly, in our city, there are beds for everyone, and those who are begging on the street are not necessarily homeless, but are usually feeding an addiction. Better to give your donations of cash and clothing to those people who have the training and facilities to help people out of a destructive lifestyle.

Well I have a different spin on this. I had a brand new men’s warm hooded fleece lined coat. I decided to offer it to the guy who sat outside our local ASDA I gave it to him on the way in to store he was pleased and tried it on. However by time I came out maybe 45 minutes later he didn’t have it on. I asked what he’d done with it, he brazenly told me he’d sold it for tobacco. So I’d suggest give it to an organisation rather to the guy on the street.

I would donate that coat if I were you.

The person that gets it may be able to fix the zip or know someone who can.

Or the charity may have volunteer sempstresses or tailors who do repairs before the clothes are handed out.

I gave an unused thick sleeping bag to a man on the street. He was very grateful.

I would fix it and then donate it, a working zip will keep the wearer warmer. The repair cafes that are everywhere would likely take it in and fix it

Could you not explain and check with the people at the drop off point? Incidentally, honeyrose, some charity shops, British heart Foundation, for one, get good money for rags.

So, you are giving it away, not because it does not fit, but because the zip does not work properly all the time. Hmmm... Ask around if someone will fix it, or tell the people at the shelter about the problem, so they get to decide whether to take it, or not. They might even be able to do it themselves.

It’s about a £1 for a large full bag of rags, bigger than a black bag and weighing about 10k full of clothes not good enough to sell

Did you know that if you donate broken or ripped clothes to a charity shop quite often they take them and get paid for cloth by the kilo and it’s made into other stuff such as carpet underfelt or other stuff ?

So, you are giving it away, not because it does not fit, but because the zip does not work properly all the time. Hmm.

Yes, and if someone is soaked to the skin, with no means of drying their wet coat, then I would think a warm, dry serviceable coat with good fasteners, albeit a wonky zip, would be worth having.

You see homeless people with dirty duvets, sleeping on park benches, but when I enquired at a homeless shelter about donating good, clean duvets and bedding, was told, “No, we can’t accept second hand stuff, only brand new items. But you could give cash for us to buy new things”.

Seems crazy to me.

sunglow12

Did you know that if you donate broken or ripped clothes to a charity shop quite often they take them and get paid for cloth by the kilo and it’s made into other stuff such as carpet underfelt or other stuff ?

Yes, as the OP to this post, I realise that, but my point was that the coat was far too good to give as rags to be used as carpet under felt. Far too good to go as rags.

No wonder there is so much waste.

Calendargirl

^So, you are giving it away, not because it does not fit, but because the zip does not work properly all the time. Hmm.^

Yes, and if someone is soaked to the skin, with no means of drying their wet coat, then I would think a warm, dry serviceable coat with good fasteners, albeit a wonky zip, would be worth having.

You see homeless people with dirty duvets, sleeping on park benches, but when I enquired at a homeless shelter about donating good, clean duvets and bedding, was told, “No, we can’t accept second hand stuff, only brand new items. But you could give cash for us to buy new things”.

Seems crazy to me.

It does seem a case of 'health and safety gone mad' . I usually much prefer the idea of being healthy and safe to a culture of cutting corners, but there are times when people should be able to make their own choices - do you want this or not?

A friend of mine's MIL died, and my friend, who lived miles away, was asked to clear the MIL's council bungalow so that it could be given to the next resident. She was given a week or so to clear it, and was told to dispose of everything inside. It was impossible to get rid of the furniture in that timescale, particularly as the distance made things even more difficult, so it had to go to the tip and the council charged per item. There were fairly new carpets, and they had to go too - even the underlay was ripped out and binned.

I know that not everyone would want a previous resident's things, and there is always a possibility of fleas or bedbugs, but IMO the next tenant should at least be able to look around and choose whether to keep things or not at their own risk. Someone might not have much furniture (eg if they have been living with family) and carpets from their previous place are highly unlikely to fit the new one. The furniture could have gone to someone in vulnerable housing, or offered to people who were struggling, but the council offered no such service, and a combination of the timescale and the distance between my friend and her MIL made offering it on local Freecycle-type sites all but impossible, particularly as her husband was grieving the loss of his mother. It was such a dreadful waste.

I agree Doodledog.

You then see stories of single mothers say, given a council flat or similar, which has had all previous furnishings ripped out, so they are walking on bare floors, with no carpet or other floor coverings, and maybe no curtains or any furnishings.

It’s mad.

I belong to an organisation with 100’s of clubs in it. My chosen charity one year was the homeless which was supported by all the clubs in my district. Take it to your local homeless centre. They’ll know if it can be used or not. They may even have different group activities/classes they run which may include repairing.

I heard lots of tales from the homeless centres that I visited, it was eye opening. Don’t give money buy a hot drink (maybe soup) and a sandwich (which they could eat later).

@Anita79 a similar thing happened to me, not a veteran but a man sitting outside M&S. I was waiting in the high street for my husband. Watching this man. Went to talk to him, told me his story and a bit more (about someone that ran a homeless day centre) he couldn’t get a bed at a night shelter that was opening due to the cold weather spells because he’d got in the middle of a fight to stop it… so was banned…. I said I wouldn’t give him money but I would buy him a hot drink and a sandwich… he asked if he could have a hot chocolate and bun from Greggs…. Later feeling concerned I rang the CEO of the local hostel-he knew who I was talking about… he wasn’t homeless- he had a flat and he was trying to get money for drugs…

I would say absolutely YES. I have a coat with zipper and snaps and without using the zipper it is still very warm.

Someone will silently thank you for this gift.
USA Gundy

You could try some WD40 or Vaseline on the zip.

Definitely the right thing to have done Calendargirl.

Definitely do not give anything faulty to a charity shop. As has been said it would just be put straight into the rags bag which we can sell for money.
I’m not sure that a homeless person would want your coat with a broken zip either, at least not in Sussex. They only want duvets and pillows brand new and in original packaging. They can be very rude and aggressive too. A popular request is for a £10 phone voucher and very choice language if “ only “ offering a sandwich or hot drink. Kindness can be rejected in an alarming at !