Getting Results Award winner advocates for the homeless

Thomas Rebman has one message: The homeless need help

ORLANDO, Fla. – Thomas Rebman has one message: The homeless need help. 

On a typical day you can find him anywhere from city council meetings, the offices of local politicians or on the streets of Central Florida, he's trying to find anyone that will listen. 

Rebman gained national attention when he voluntarily went homeless in the summer of 2014. He traveled the U.S. recording video updates, often documenting the treatment and conditions he had to endure.

"I did everything trying to survive," he says. "I learned how difficult it was and I found we're not helping the people we need to help."

He says the experience changed him. He's been an outspoken advocate for the homeless ever since.

"When you learn how bad people are suffering and it's so hard to get people's attention to the truth. You know everybody wants to look at the stereotype of homelessness instead of seeing the people that are suffering."

Rebman can recite statistics and research results without missing a beat. " I want them to know the true statistics of homelessness," he says, as he looks around at the crowd gathered for a feeding in Downtown Orlando. "You know 48-percent of the homeless in Florida are a woman and a children, a single woman and a child."

On this night he's helping The Ephraim Project, a faith based charity, hand out meals to the nearly 300 people that show up to a parking lot behind the county library.

He knows many personally, he knows their name, their story and what it will take to get them help.

"What matters is that at the end of the day if I don't change anything but people's perspective of homeless people, I've done my job." 

 

 

 


About the Author:

Paul is a Florida native who graduated from the University of Central Florida. As a multimedia journalist, Paul enjoys profiling the people and places that make Central Florida unique.