New Year's Message

What an absolutely incredible, challenging, and blessed year we’ve had at the Men’s Shelter of Charlotte! At this time last year, the shelters on our two campuses – Statesville Avenue and Tryon Street – we serving about 500 men per night. One year later that number is closer to 600 men per night with many nights well above 600. The rising numbers bring me no joy, it’s the response from the community that has been so wonderful. When we brought the Emergency Winter Shelter and Uptown Shelter together to create the Men’s Shelter of Charlotte, we were focused on one main goal – to do an even better job helping the hundreds of homeless men in our community come in off the streets, find comfort and stability in our shelters, and begin the journey towards self-sufficiency by moving out of homelessness. We started by ensuring that at least 500 beds of safe emergency shelter were made available to homeless men in our community every night. When we realized that number was insufficient, we decided that we would welcome all and not turn away any homeless man seeking assistance – we would find a way to shelter all who came. And we’ve lived up to that promise! As importantly, we’ve introduced new best practices to encourage men to leave the streets for our shelters and to help them obtain and maintain more appropriate housing. Last year we helped over 125 men move out of the shelter and into housing. Our goal this year is to move at least 250 men into housing. With so many men in our beds each night, the Men’s Shelter is an ideal catalyst for ending homelessness, one man at a time. We’ve done this with the support of our county and city, the United Way, corporations, foundations, congregations, and individuals – lots and lots of individuals. The support has been great, unfortunately it has not kept pace with the demand. We have more than doubled our year-round shelter capacity over the past year, but many of our funding resources have not increased and some have even decreased. We’re working hard to engage new donors and attract additional funding resources, but the economy has not cooperated. We’ll continue to work around the clock to help homeless men and secure the funding needed to do so. As we begin a new year, I encourage all of our supporters to consider what more you can do to help.