As 2010 comes to an end, I want to take a moment to express my deep gratitude for your faithful support and share a few things that are on my heart.
In the next 30 days Union Rescue Mission is facing both a tremendous opportunity, and an overwhelming challenge. Our Winter Shelters opened in Glendale, Culver City and West LA in addition to downtown on December 1st and we are anticipating another record number of families needing assistance due to the economy and bitter cold weather.
We are making final preparations for our Annual Christmas Store and special Christmas Eve and Christmas Day celebrations. As always, we hope to share God’s love with thousands of men, women and children who will turn to us for help this year.
And thanks to a capital gift from the County Homeless and Housing Prevention Fund, we completed renovations on the Sycamore Building at Hope Gardens Family Center and are planning to move 12-14 more families—moms with children—directly from URM’s downtown location surrounded by the mean streets of Skid Row, to the peace, safety and beauty of Hope Gardens Family Center. We also just received word that the Ahmanson Foundation has stepped up to provide the much needed funds to completely renovate Concord, our final building at Hope Gardens, and we expect to move another 12 to 14 moms and precious children, from URM to Hope Gardens in March.
This combined with plans to open a Los Angeles Homeless Authority funded project for nine families at 83rd and Broadway, and a move of our year round shelter for 8 families to a site just off of West Adams, means that we are on the brink of success in achieving a long awaited hope and plan to move every child and mom away from the mean streets of Skid Row and out to a much more child friendly environment!
This has been the plan of the Board of Directors and URM staff all along. And frankly, it is one of 3 legacies that I had in my heart when I came through the door of URM nearly 6 years ago.
We are so grateful to have the capital resources to complete the projects to accomplish this goal, but here comes the overwhelming challenge…giving for the year is down and we have a $750,000 gap in the operating funds needed to support the families we are planning to move from Skid Row. We hoped to fill this gap with a continued County subsidy of $62,500 per month to Hope Gardens, believing that they would support our carrying out of their mandate to get every child off of Skid Row and out of Union Rescue Mission.
Despite requests from faithful friends, staff members and I, to date the County Board of Supervisors has not come through with this vital funding.
Your amazing heart and faith is our final hope of accomplishing this tremendous history making goal before the end of this year.
If you can respond in yet another unprecedented way, and we can raise an additional, unexpected $750,000 by December 31st of this year, we can move ahead with plans to get every single mom and child off of Skid Row and to a beautiful place of safety and hope and a ladder out of homelessness and poverty.
On behalf of our entire team I wish you a very Merry Christmas and a blessed New Year.
Sincerely,
P.s. While I have assured the County that if they do not respond and we fall short in funding, it will be their decision that leaves children on Skid Row, it is my heartfelt prayer that year-end giving from our faithful donors will fill the gap and allow us to move forward with this vital plan.