The Board of the Richmond County Mental Health Society issued a press release Monday saying its homeless shelter, which has been open from October through March in Rockingham in the past, is in jeopardy of not opening this winter due to a lack of money.
The release also says “the Society’s plans of adding a women and children’s homeless shelter to its services” are at risk of being quashed, though it will continue to operate soup kitchens in Hamlet and Rockingham.
“There has been a critical need to provide shelter for the homeless men, women and children in our community for some time, but it takes more than one agency and its deep desires to make it happen,” Mental Health Society Board member Rene Rohleder said. “The reality is, without money and committed community partnerships, all hope and chance of it happening are gone.”
Board Chairman John Baker said the agency received $20,000 in Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) three years ago, but was left out of the most recent round of funding in March.
“We used about $20,000 for the season, and that included paying for a coordinator, food and utilities,” Baker said. “In three years, we’ve gone from having $20,000 in FEMA funds to having none, and I just can’t run my house that way. At this point, we just would not have the resources to open the shelter for the winter.”
He said the two soup kitchens the agency operates can afford to continue because most of the work is done by volunteers and much of the food is donated.
“It may not seem as important on a 90-degree day like this,” Baker said Monday. “But when Fall rolls around it’s going to be tough to tell people who don’t have anywhere to go that we won’t be able to open the shelter.”
United Way of Richmond County Director Michelle Parrish chairs the Emergency Food and Shelter Board, which allocates the FEMA funding.
She said the Mental Health Society had received the funding during the two previous years, but the decision was made to go in other directions with the roughly $45,000 that was available. It was divided up between seven agencies. Ten applied for it.
“We had some groups apply that would be able to utilize the money for the whole year, as opposed to six months,” Parrish said.
Among those awarded funds were Samaritan Colony with $10,000; Helping Hands of Hamlet with $12,500; Southern Mission Ministry of Hoffman with $4,000; Our Daily Bread Food Ministry with $6,000; Outreach for Jesus Unlit’d with $1,000; the Salvation Army with about $4,500; and Meals on Wheels with $3,000.
The three applicant agencies that weren’t awarded funding were the Mental Health Society, New Horizons and Outreach for Jesus Dream Center.
Parrish said only the Salvation Army and Meals on Wheels were new additions to the list, and money is pulled down in two installments for the agencies that were chosen.
“These agencies will be accountable for the money they’ve been awarded,” she said.
Baker also hinted at a rift between the Mental Health Society and the board that awards the funding.
“The tragedy is that it’s a matter of perception who’s going to be hurt the least or the most by missing out on this funding,” he said. “For some of these agencies, these FEMA funds are frosting on the cake, but it made us able to survive.”
He said the group is soliciting donations from the community, but realizes it’s a tall order to collect the amount of donations it requires to operate.
“We’ve looked at (possibilities for fundraisers),” Baker said. “But our board is so small, and at this point, we don’t have the capabilities to raise the kind of money we need to open in the fall. We probably need close to $18,000 to $20,000 to keep it going through the winter.”
Another group will begin administering funds to agencies who deal with homelessness and related issues this fall.
The ARMM; so-called because it is made up of individuals and groups from Anson, Richmond, Montgomery and Moore counties; began meeting last year, and has been preparing participating agencies to apply for a grant from the state government to help tackle homelessness.
Anyone who is interested in volunteering or donating to the Richmond County Mental Health Society is encouraged to contact Rohleder at 997-2298 or Baker at 895-1080.
Staff Writer Philip D. Brown can be reached at (910) 997-3111 ext. 32, or by e-mail at pbrown@yourdailyjournal.com.
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