Hanesbrands has marked the 15th year of its initiative for the homeless – the Hanes for Good program. Since 2009, Hanes for Good has donated over 6 million items, including 4 million pairs of socks, to hundreds of partner organizations across all 50 states, Washington D.C., Puerto Rico and Guam.
What began as a response to a critical need for socks – one of the most requested items in homeless shelters – has grown into a national initiative to provide comfort and dignity to those experiencing homelessness. The program includes Hanes product donations of many essential items like t-shirts, underwear, sweats and, as of 2024, period underwear. The program is a cornerstone of Hanesbrands’ sustainability commitment to positively impact 10 million people by 2030.
Poverty and homelessness remain growing problems in the US. Despite being the world’s largest economy, the nation’s wealth is not shared by everyone. Census data from Sept 2024 reported that:
- On a single night in 2023, roughly 653,100 people in the US experienced homelessness, up about 12 percent from 2022.
- Among the sheltered population experiencing homelessness, 40 percent were female, 8 percent were under the age of 18, 8 percent were 65 or over, 32 percent were non-Hispanic White, 37 percent were non-Hispanic Black, and 35 percent had a disability.
- In 2023, the official poverty rate fell by 0.4 percentage points to 11.1 percent. There were 36.8 million people living in poverty in 2023, statistically unchanged from 2022 (Figure 1 and Table A-1).
