I sleep in a shelter. I built the app that helps people find one.

Help me keep building it.

Every morning I wake up in a shelter, eat breakfast at a soup kitchen, open my laptop, and build HOPE.

Read that sentence again. That's not a metaphor. That's my actual Tuesday.

HOPE is Rhode Island's Free Survival Guide — an app for anyone in crisis. A bed tonight. A meal today. A doctor who won't turn you away. Benefits you didn't know you qualified for. Crisis lines, senior services, veterans resources — all verified, all in one place, all free. No login. No tracking. A one-tap call button and an honest note on every listing telling you when the information was last confirmed.

It's live right now at hope401.org. Real people are using it today.

Why me? Because I've lived both sides of this.

I was a food bank Executive Director. I printed the resource lists. I know the quiet embarrassment of handing someone information you suspect is already out of date.

And then I became the person on the other end — walking across town to a soup kitchen that turned out to be closed, burning energy I didn't have on an address that was wrong. Spending my last bus fare to find a locked door.

Nobody should learn the system from both sides. But because I did, I knew exactly what to build.

Here's the part where I'm honest with you.

The app works. The State of Rhode Island has taken notice — the Executive Office of Housing has offered its full support. A major article is coming. Partnerships are forming. Everything is moving.

Everything except my own life.

I'm building the tool that helps people find shelter while sleeping in one. I'm building the tool that helps people find food while eating at a soup kitchen. Every dollar I don't have to worry about surviving is an hour I can spend building.

I'm not telling you this for sympathy. I'm telling you because you deserve to know exactly who you're supporting and exactly what your money does.

What your donation actually does:

☕ $10 keeps Bridge — HOPE's AI guide — answering questions for a week

️ $25 covers a month of hosting so the app never goes dark for someone who needs it at 2am

$50 buys me focused days of building instead of surviving

$100+ brings HOPE closer to reaching every Rhode Islander who needs it

One transparent note: HOPE is a nonprofit project — we've incorporated and our federal 501(c)(3) tax-exempt status is being processed right now. Until the IRS approves it, I can't issue tax-deduction receipts yet. If you give today, you're giving because you believe in this — not for the write-off. (The moment our status is approved, it may apply retroactively — but I'd rather promise you nothing and deliver more.)

That's how this whole project works, actually. Honest first.

The bottom line:

I know what it means to need help and not be able to find it.

I'm building the thing I wish had existed when I needed it most.

Rhode Island is small enough to fix this. I'm stubborn enough to do it. What I need is time — and time is exactly what you'd be giving.

Donate if you can. Share if you can't. Either one genuinely moves this forward.

Learn more: hope401.org

Help should never be harder to find than the problems it exists to solve.

— Robert Diamond

Founder, HOPE — Rhode Island

HOPE is a free, no-login resource app for Rhode Islanders in crisis — shelter, food, benefits, healthcare, crisis support, and dedicated resources for seniors, veterans, youth, and more. Live now at https://hope401.org in English and Spanish.