Standing with The Action Center

by | Jun 14, 2018

reel factory car meet graphic

Severe Weather Shelter Network is saddened by the need for The Action Center to close it’s shelter. The Action Center is a very important partner with Severe Weather Shelter Network as we both seek to assist people experiencing homelessness to a place of safety and stability.

Homelessness continues to be on the rise in the Denver metro area. Housing costs and the cost of living in general are making it very difficult for individuals and families to make ends meet. All it takes is one crisis event and the person finds themselves on the streets with nowhere to go.

Severe Weather Shelter Network and other organizations in the suburban corridor are challenged as we seek to help our neighbors understand the “why and who” of homelessness in our communities. Regularly we are confronted with neighbors who just want people and families experiencing homelessness to go somewhere else. Where can they go?

Organizations serving people experiencing homelessness are not addressing a popular or heart wrenching need in the view of our neighbors. Quite often it is the abandoned animal or the hungry child that stir the hearts of those living in our communities.

The reality is that more than 70% of people experiencing homelessness in our communities are families with children. Families living with other family members, living in motels, living in their cars. All trying to keep themselves safe and working. All trying to prevent authorities from seeing the truth of their situation, afraid their children will be taken away from them. Organizations like The Action Center, Mean Street Ministry and Family Tree are all seeking a way to help families get back on their feet.

These same organizations partner with us to assist single men and women take those same steps toward stability and safety. For those individuals experiencing homelessness the resources are fewer and farther between.

Shelters will fill up first with families, which we fully support and encourage. Housing is at a premium and will of course go first and foremost to families. Many jobs are paying at an hourly rate that doesn’t meet the cost of living, especially in our suburban communities. So, even for our neighbors living on the streets who are working, it is next to impossible to save money to get into an apartment.

Severe Weather Shelter Network continues to be committed to working together with our partners to provide emergency overnight shelter on life threatening winter nights for our single friends living on the streets. Those partnerships have allowed us to be part of helping 25 individuals get into housing over the last 3 years.

Our summer crusade and work is to build up those partnerships. We are sitting at the table with other organizations who are asking the same question we are: How do we as a community work together to create a pathway out of homelessness in our suburban communities?

Would you join us in this crusade?

Your financial gifts over the summer months to Severe Weather Shelter Network and to our partners are critical to helping us create this pathway. Take a few moments right now to pray and ask our Father in Heaven what He would have you do. What gift would He ask you to give?

Let’s not see another shelter go away for lack of support. Instead, let’s see how all of us working together, with all of our resources can bring an end to the scourge that is homelessness.

Our neighbors living on the streets will thank you!