13 Jul A Letter from our Director: Your Support Moves Us Forward
Despite the reminders of our homelessness crisis I see everyday as I drive to work, I remain optimistic that our community is turning the tide when it comes to this persistent community problem brought about by a multitude of events in our islands over the last few decades.
Our team at IHS continually pushes boundaries to help people find their way out of homelessness. I am always inspired by their passion to walk the streets, cook hundreds of meals everyday, connect people with community resources, design housing plans, and help prepare them for jobs. Our volunteers also donate countless hours to help sustain service delivery and administration. But lately, the community has been an even more energizing source of inspiration. Service Providers are eager to find new ways to collaborate by sharing resources and information; Legislators are sponsoring bold new policies; Public Servants are stepping outside bureaucratic boxes to enable creative housing solutions, and Private Developers are calling for ways to make affordable housing more possible. Somebody, pinch me! The stars seem to be aligning for significant movement toward real solutions.
Your support over the years has clearly fueled our momentum. It has helped us scale up our services resulting in new programs and service sites. But serving more people comes the need to furnish and landscape those sites, the need for more staff space and to pay for more hot showers and basic essentials like toilet paper, mops, buckets, or other supplies and equipment.
While government readily funds housing programs and some supportive services, they do not have the capacity to fully fund all we do. To be cost efficient, IHS continues to collaborate with over 80 organizations and 100+ landlords to leverage resources and design impactful solutions. The need for our services continues to grow. This is why we need your help to build our funding capacity now.
The year ahead for IHS will involve new partnerships with churches, private developers, community leaders, policymakers, and the list goes on. But we can’t successfully implement solutions without resources for homeless people needing access and care. Systems change is hard. But we are committed to pressing on and challenging the status quo so that our homeless are better served. If you haven’t done so, please make a gift today to let us know you are with us in this movement; to help people experience peace and health that comes with having a safe, descent place to sleep and to call home.
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