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Established | November 2008 |
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Founder | Mark Horvath |
Type | 501(c)(3) non-profit organization |
Location |
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Website | www |
Invisible People is an American 501(c)(3) non-profit organization working for homeless people in the United States. [1] The organization educates the public about homelessness through storytelling, educational resources, and advocacy. [2]
The organization was founded in November 2008 by activist and former television executive, Mark Horvath. Interviews are posted on its website and other social media outlets. [3] The organization has interviewed homeless people in over 100 cities across the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom. [4]
Invisible People was founded by Mark Horvath. In the early 1990s, California resident [5] Horvath worked as a television distribution executive, [6] [7] [8] but addiction to drugs and alcohol resulted in him becoming homeless in 1995. [5] [9] [10] After eight years, [7] [11] he sought rehabilitation with the help of the Los Angeles Dream Center [6] [9] and, in 2005, relocated to St. Louis, Missouri. [6] [7]
During the Great Recession, Horvath lost his job and home, [11] [12] [9] and returned to Los Angeles. [6] Facing homelessness again, he recorded interviews with homeless people on a Flipcam and posted them on YouTube and Twitter. [9] [10] In November 2008, Invisible People was launched.[ citation needed ] It is registered in the United States as a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization. [13] [14]
The guy you see on the street with the cardboard sign – that's actually a very small demographic of homelessness ... you don't see these people on the street corner. You have families tripling up; you have people living in their cars. You have people, especially the homeless youth population, doing survival sex and all kinds of horrible things just to have a place to stay, and you have the huge amount of families living in hotels and they can't save up for first and last month's rent.
— Mark Horvath, 2011 [7]
Horvath describes the organization as "a conversation about solutions to end homelessness" that "gives homeless people a chance to tell their own story." [7] Interviews on the subjects' sufferings are recorded using a hand-held videocamera, microphone, laptop, and iPhone, and posted unedited on YouTube, Twitter and Facebook. [6]
Horvath initially interviewed subjects in California, then expanded across the United States and beyond, including Canada [7] Peru, [12] and the United Kingdom. [13] Hovarth travels worldwide to raise awareness about homelessness. [15] [16] Private companies provide goods to be donated to the homeless during Invisible People's road tours, as well as providing transportation and lodging for Horvath. [8]
In April 2009, Invisible People streamed live interviews with homeless people in a tent city in Sacramento, California, on Twitter. After the interviews were posted, a Seattle-based company sponsored the organizations' first cross-country tour, in which Horvath traveled to over 20 cities and interviewed over 100 homeless people. [6] The organization has also partnered with Hanes in the ten-year-old Hanes National Sock Drive raising awareness about the homeless Americans. [2]
By 2010, the organization had released interviews with over 200 homeless people. [12] In 2011, a privately owned, non governmental, Not For Profit Homeless Organization based in Calgary commissioned Invisible People to tour 24 cities in Canada, [17] starting on July 4 in Victoria and ending on September 12 in St. John's, including stops in Toronto and Calgary. [7] [11] [18] The organization’s website received 50,000 hits per month in 2011. [11]
... some of the strongest stories – the people who are really most isolated or have gone through the toughest things – are those who wouldn't speak to me. They won't speak to anyone anymore.
— Mark Horvath, 2010 [12]
According to NBC News, Horvath's interviews give the homeless a face and a voice. [19] The interviews conducted by the non-profit have resulted in assistance being provided to the interviewed subjects. [20] On August 22, 2010, YouTube allowed Horvath and Invisible People to curate YouTube's homepage for a day. [21] In 2012, LA Weekly awarded Invisible People and its founder, Mark Horvath, a "Best Online Do-Gooder" award. [9]
In Baton Rouge, Louisiana, the viewers raised money to buy shoes for 50 schoolchildren. [9] In Arkansas, a farmer donated 40 acres to create a farm that feeds 150 homeless people a week. [9] [12] An interview with a 58-year-old homeless man dying of cancer in Calgary led to his brother finding him after 33 years of estrangement; the two were able to spend 53 days together before the man succumbed to cancer. [11] [9] Housing programs have also been started in Arkansas and Calgary following the organization's tours in those cities. [6] [5] [22]
A documentary about Invisible People entitled "@home" won the 2014 Los Angeles Diversity Film Festival Best Documentary Award and aired on PBS in 2015. [14] [23]