URM Updates

We are about to enter into our 125th year of serving people experiencing homelessness on Skid Row in Los Angeles.

This year will be a very special one, as we are moving ahead in adding 13 units at Hope Gardens to assist 13 more moms & their children in overcoming homelessness. These 13 units will serve a special role as they will be a safety net for children of moms’ who may take a bit longer or may not ever overcome the obstacles keeping them without a home of their own.

Other plans for Hope Gardens include paying off the $3.6 million dollar mortgage, making the elevators operational in all buildings & we may build small homes on vacant land & more units for our Senior Ladies.

At Union Rescue Mission we are ready to retrofit all 3 elevators & make other needed capital improvements.

Next year’s plans also call for a URM satellite out of Skid Row as we continue our strategic plan to multiply hope, regionalize services, & bring an end to the tragedy that is Skid Row.

We are off to a good start on all of these new plans but none can proceed without a good finish to 2015.

This good finish is complicated by El Niño & the now cold weather that has come early & the expected cold & wet storms predicted in our near future.

We’ve added 140 cots downtown & these cots have been utilized for 223 days in a row.  With the worst of the storms on the way, we may need to add 250 more cots or even find a satellite location now rather than later to get everyone out of harms way. These are added costs not planned in our budget & that is why we need your help.

We need to not only meet our budget of $3.7 million in December alone, but we need to surpass the budget to keep up with the added costs of serving our precious guests in our cold & wet weather cots. Welcoming them at this critical moment could quite possibly put them on the path home to a transformed life.

Take a moment to give a life saving life changing gift of any amount at urm.org by December 31st to help URM finish 2015 strong & roll into 2016 with great momentum.

Every gift given by midnight December 31st will be matched/doubled.

Thank you, Andy B