Fighting the 'isolation' of homelessness, with the companionship of volunteer friends
LOS ANGELES -- During the half-hour phone call they bantered about the appearance of gray hair, the joys of getting their nails done and strategies to exercise more.
Amid the small talk, Beth Thompson dropped a bombshell. After living 16 months in a tiny home village in North Hollywood, she'd soon be moving into her own apartment.
Thompson and Tiffany Daniel have never met in person and likely never will. Daniel, an employee of the U.S. Department of Commerce, lives across the country in the town of Waldorf in southern Maryland.
She's been speaking with Thompson by telephone for about six months after signing up with Miracle Messages, a nonprofit conducting an unusual social experiment in pursuit of its founder's vision that companionship can be a force in improving the lives of homeless people, and maybe even more so if enhanced with a little spending money.
Over the last two years, about 200 volunteers like Daniel have become telephone buddies with people living on the streets of Los Angeles or, like Thompson, in shelters. About half of them, including Thompson, receive a of $750 as pocket money with no strings attached.
