One North Carolina business owner is helping the homeless by opening up his parking lot to people who may be living out of their cars.
James Charles is the owner of Kiplin's Automotive Group in Charlotte, North Carolina. For about two months, he has been encouraging people sleeping in their cars to use the company's parking lot as a safe place to sleep at night.
Charles was first encouraged to do something helpful after his team tried to take back a woman's car back in January.
"The gentleman who was taking back the car said, ‘We can't take the car; there's somebody living in the car,'" Charles told WBTV.
Then he tried to get the woman into a homeless shelter (收容所). But he was shocked to find that every shelter in the city was full. Although he paid for her to stay in a hotel for a few nights, he knew that there were other people suffering from the same thing.
Charles made a Facebook post: "We would like to provide a safe place for those going through this tough time. We can't put everyone in a hotel, but we can get you a safe place for the night.
Since more and more people have shared his post, people have donated (捐赠) hats, scarves, food, and even an easy-to-move toilet for the parking lot. Not only that, but about 20 different people have helped Charles with his offer by parking their cars overnight at the lot.
These kind acts also made it possible for Charles to start his non-profit (非盈利的) organization, HALO Now. The organization was set up to raise money for the homeless people of Charlotte — and he has raised more than US$30,000.
