HOPE Hospitality and Warming Center, Inc.

This year, at HOPE Hospitality and Warming Center, we will expanding on the supportive services we provide individuals struggling with homelessness in Southeast Michigan. Thanks to a generous three-year grant from The Jewish Fund, we will be able to keep the doors of our emergency winter shelter open for a full five months this season, ensuring no person is forced to sleep outside during the coldest time of year.

In order to accommodate for this seasonal expansion, we will need additional volunteer assistance, and a significantly larger amount of item donations. We are looking for people willing to coordinate a night or two of volunteering at the warming center. Are you or your family willing to sign up for an evening and bring a few friends along to prepare and serve a meal, or help out in other areas? We are also in great need of disposable bathing towels; new undershirts, socks, and underwear; as well as sample-size hygiene items for our guests (soap, shampoo, deodorant, etc.).

Please contact us if you are willing to help us in our work to keep people out of the cold this winter.

While many of the costs associated with our shelter program are offset by our dedicated volunteers (over 4,500 hours of volunteering last winter alone!), and through generous item donations, there is still a cost associated with each night of accommodation and service we provide. For each $450 dollars we spend, we are able to provide an individual struggling with homelessness with a full month of essential services--including a hot meal and warm place to sleep each night; hygiene items, and regular access to bathrooms and showers; health assessments with a registered nurse; and nightly access to our Service Coordinators, who assist our guests in assessing their status, and identifying and connecting them to community services for which they are eligible.

Please click here if you are able to make a financial contribution to our work. We assure that your gift will be leveraged to help people in our community struggling with homelessness, to keep them fed and out of the cold each night, and to connect them to whatever community resources are available that will help them find housing and additional supportive services.

I am pleased to share that Crain's Detroit Business has acknowledged our work at HOPE Hospitality and Warming Center, and they have included me in their 2009 list of "20 in their 20s" for the success of our ongoing resource development strategies. The list of profiles for all award recipients can be found here.

BY MEGHA SATYANARAYANA • FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER • March 11, 2009

Michigan's safety net spares many children from homelessness, even though the possibility of the state's families losing their homes is among the highest in the nation, a report released Tuesday by the National Center on Family Homelessness found...READ MORE

I recently got together at the Bean & Leaf with a couple folks I met through Motor City Connect, and we discussed various ways we can reach out to our community and let people know about the important work happening at the HOPE Hospitality and Warming Center. Henry Balanon used his flip camera to record a brief conversation between Shauna Nicholson of biz[net] and myself about our upcoming plans to utilize the web and various forms of social media to engage people in the conversation around homelessness in our community. There will be more to come...

HOPE Center for Hospitality & Warming from Shauna Nicholson on Vimeo.

By JERRY WOLFFE
Of The Oakland Press

Sub-zero temperatures and the worst recession in southeastern Michigan in decades have filled shelters and emptied food pantries, leaving many of the poor and homeless to fend for themselves...READ MORE

I am writing this entry at the shelter, as our evening guests are arriving. It is 8:36pm, and we opened our doors at 8:30. At the moment, it is 18 degrees Fahrenheit outside.

This is the first time we have ever been open on New Years Eve, and I am very grateful for our volunteers and staff who are choosing to be here tonight. I would like to thank everybody who helped us achieve an earlier start (on Christmas!) this season, including our excellent staff, volunteers, board of directors, and generous donors. I am so appreciative of all your hard work.

Recession threatens cities' progress in shifting people to apartments with case workers.

Dionne Walker / Associated Press

ATLANTA -- Beneath the glowing red curlicues of the Coca-Cola headquarters sign, case worker Hylda Jackson bargains with one of Atlanta's left behind.

"Are you ready, right now, this morning?" she says, kneeling beside a white-bearded man.

Harry Byrd's rumpled form is enveloped by the odor of stale beer, even before dawn...READ MORE

This New Years Eve, the place to be is at the WhyYouJam.com party.

$30 cover includes: light food and drink, open bar, and lots of music!
You must be on the guest list and prepaid to get in; money will not be taken at the door.

10% of every ticket sold will be donated to the HOPE Hospitality & Warming Center, a nonprofit serving people struggling with homelessness in Pontiac. We will also be doing a drive, so bring new pairs of men's socks, men's underwear, extra sample-size hygiene products, or a few bucks to donate.

CLICK HERE for more info at the WhyYouJam.com website, and to purchase tickets.

As I am sure most are well aware, our national and global economies are struggling quite a bit at the moment. The National Bureau of Economic Research has recognized that the U.S. economy peaked in December 2007, and has been in recession since that time. I personally do not know very many folks who have not felt a personal financial impact related to this broader trend. Unfortunately, it is the already economically disadvantaged who are likely to suffer the greatest, in a very real and immediate sense.

Hosted by On the Rocks Detroit @ The Crofoot Ballroom

Thursday December 18th 2008, 7pm-Midnight

Join On the Rocks Detroit & an all-star lineup of singers, including Vinny Dombroski (Sponge, Crud, The Orbitsuns), Ty Stone, Whitey Morgan, Brandon Calhoon (Smokin' Moses), Robin Horlock, Eliza Neals, Don 'Doop' Duprie (Doop & The Inside Outlaws), & Frankie D'Angelo, at the Crofoot Ballroom in Pontiac to raise a glass or two of holiday cheer and give some much needed help to our friends at the HOPE Hospitality & Warming Center!