 Founded in 1985 by Stephen Riley, who ran the organization from his apartment in the Bronx, The United Homeless Organization solicited money at sidewalk tables at various locations in Manhattan.Solicitors paid the organization $15 per shift (with 3 to 4 shifts per day) to rent a table and collection jug; any remaining funds raised they could keep for themselves.According to the United Homeless Organization, more than three-quarters of its solicitors were homeless, and all had been homeless at one time.