Dear Sisters and Brothers at Christ Church,
For the last few weeks I've been working with our fearless Social Justice Ministry to revive the homeless shelter in our Parish Hall. We've been strategizing with the Mayor and the Interim City Manager. As you can imagine, these cold, wet nights are miserable for our homeless neighbors. On Wednesday we had a very encouraging meeting with the City and the Housing Consortium of the East Bay (HCEB), and we're close to striking a deal that would allow us to reopen. Nothing is certain yet, but here's an outline of how things will work:
We will host a shelter in our Parish Hall for 2-3 fixed nights per week, which are not dependent on weather. Opening and closing according to the forecast is just too difficult to staff.
HCEB will provide professional staff to work overnight.
Christ Church will organize volunteer teams to provide and serve hot dinners and to-go breakfasts. Christ Church will organize volunteer teams to operate the showers for the guests. Christ Church will also solicit donations of sleeping bags from the community for shelter guests.
The City of Alameda will provide $70,000 in funding, while Christ Church has committed to raising an additional $20,000. We will fundraise with other churches, the community at large and possibly draw on reserves that remain from the previous season.
HCEB is currently determining how many nights of staffing $90,000 will pay for. That will allow us to create a schedule.
We still have many details to work out, but our fantastic Social Justice Ministry team is committed to figuring this out. I realize that operating a shelter in our Parish Hall requires us to compromise on space use, and sometimes that is frustrating. At the risk of sounding self-righteous, however, I believe helping out some of our most vulnerable neighbors is a great way to follow Jesus' example in the Gospels.
Please feel free to reach out to me if you have any questions at all. I will keep you updated as our plans unfold. God bless you.
-Stephen
