5-9-22 BOC Budget Work Session - Laserfiche WebLink

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Only families with children under the age of 18 are eligible to be served. Most families are single mothers with children. There are 30 area churches that provide meals to families. As of right now, churches are not providing shelter due to the pandemic. Families currently stay at the Day Center. Currently only eight or nine or about two families can be served at a time. About 11 families have been served over the last couple of years with 28 children, 11 under the age of five. The Day Center provides administrative offices, laundry services, showers, storage, donations, a mailing address and a school bus stop. There are no signs on the building to protect the privacy of children. They also provide employment assistance in addition to classes on parenting and financial advice, collaboration with agencies, legal counsel, education, case management and transportation. There is a one or two year follow up with families and continuation of certain services. Five families have been helped through case management while on the waiting list. Outreach Mission, Inc. Hamer Carter, Executive Director for Outreach Mission, operate two homeless shelters in Lee County. Their mission is to help people piece their lives back together following periods of homelessness. 368 people were served in 2021. The average length of stay was about 45 days. OMI works with Community Action to provide a housing program which included about 77 individuals that returned to stable housing. Last year, the County supported OMI in a street outreach program, which is designed to meet people where they are and assess their needs to provide care and shelter as needed or other community programs. Outreach Mission works with several organizations to connect individuals with resources, including H3, Salvation Army and Bread of Life. In 2022, a Point in Time (PIT) count was performed to try to count everyone who was sheltered, unsheltered and homeless. The count showed about 100 people that were unsheltered. OMI was at full capacity. OMI has five or six volunteers that can go in the field with an emergency kit that includes food, hygiene items and baby items to distribute. The street outreach will help connect people who are unsheltered to necessary services to ensure every person has basic human needs met for survival. The application has been submitted for the financing of the new homeless shelter and they hope to hear something by the first of July. Bread of Life Ministries Bill Hicks, Executive Director of Bread of Life Ministries, was present to provide information regarding the Bread of Life, which has been in operation since 2017 providing food resources to the community. 2, 128 people have been served, including 1,092 different households. The Bread of Life is open every Saturday to serve meals to homeless and the community. They average between 40-60 people each Saturday. They are a low barrier assistance provider. They also provide a food pantry and are working with the Salvation Army and the Navigation Center. The Bread of Life also has an Extreme Cold Weather Shelter, which has been available for four years. The grant money would help utility costs and assist with motel costs. In 2021, the shelter was opened 65 nights, serving about 14 people a night with donations from churches and individuals. Already close to $10,000 has been spent on utilities this year. H3 works under Bread of Life Ministries to provide medical care. The City Fire Marshall advised that an alarm system would be needed to open more of the Old Mclver School to provide services. The proposal is that this location could be a good set up for short-term missions for churches. Funding is needed to complete the necessary repairs and improvements. The goal is to take the top floor, which is about 16,000 square