Andy's Updates - 12/2008
by mindy on Monday, December 29th, 2008, Filed Under Rev Andy's Blog | View Comments
There are days when you get a word of “Thanks” and you know that you are in the right place at the right time of your life. Two weeks ago I had a few of those days.
I attended a luncheon for a wonderful group of Lawyers and staff at O’Melveny & Myers LLP, with one of our precious moms from URM’s Hope Gardens Family Center. O’Melveny & Myers LLP had gathered food, gifts and clothes for Union Rescue Mission. They overwhelmed us with gifts! Our mom did a wonderful job of sharing, she said, “Before I came to Hope Gardens all of my dreams were deferred, and I thought they were dead, but now my dreams have awakened and I am alive again, studying to be a nurse.” It is hard to describe the joy I had inside.
The next day I received this letter from another mom at Hope Gardens:
I am a resident at Hope Gardens and I am writing you to let you know how grateful and appreciative I am. Around this time last year, I was 7 months pregnant and sleeping on the streets. I was cold, scared, hungry and tired. I was too scared to ask for help. I thought that everyone had turned their back on me. I didn’t think anyone would even want to help me. Finally I got tired of the cold and hunger and asked for help. I ended up staying at the cold weather shelter in West Covina and then a couple of nights at West LA shelter until I was able to find a more stable place. If it wasn’t for the cold weather shelters, I don’t know where I would be. I hope others see them as much of a blessing as I do. Also I want to thank you for all you do. Your staff here at Hope Gardens are so caring and loving. I have never felt so much love in my life. It’s so overwhelming I want to cry. Not because I’m sad, but because I’m happy. I hope that others will be able to experience this happiness.
Last night I learned that the first mom who walked into our Burbank Winter Shelter on Dec. 1st, cold, afraid, desperate for help, and clutching her beautiful 5 month old baby in her arms, moved into the safety of Hope Gardens last week!
This is too much joy to keep within me, and I had to share it with all of you who have made these words of thanks possible. Bless you, Andy B.
by mindy on Thursday, December 11th, 2008, Filed Under Rev Andy's Blog | View Comments
I just got off of a call that broke my heart. A donor was broken hearted about a letter that I sent out quoting Matthew Chapter 25 in the Bible, “If you fail to feed a hungry/homeless person, it is like turning your back on Jesus himself.” She said, “How can I help if I can’t even help myself? I have always given in the past, but now I am very sick, my husband is in tougher shape, suffering from dementia, and our house has been foreclosed! How can I possibly help? Please pray for me!” My heart was broken. I shared with her that the Lord understood. I told her that the Lord heard her cry and knew her heart. We prayed for healing and comfort, and I asked her to keep me up to date with how she is doing. I ended the call with tears in my eyes.
Our donors are very special people. We talked about these special, spiritual people this week in our staff meeting. Two years ago I was amazed at the letters that I received, many from people in their 90’s, who were apologizing for not being able to send more. These are amazing people, many of whom are from the “Greatest Generation”, and I believe it with all of my heart.
This heartbreaking call was not the first. Another donor, who normally sends a Christmas gift in the thousands, called and let me know that they could only send $25 this Christmas. Then they asked me to pray for them, because they are struggling from day to day and fear becoming homeless themselves.
Please say a prayer, today, for these dear, sweet friends. They have blessed so many with their generosity, and what hurts them the most is not being able to give to others at this difficult time. Bless you. Andy B.
by robin on Friday, December 5th, 2008, Filed Under Rev Andy's Blog | View Comments
I recently received this information through AGRM.org’s publication, Street Smart, on how a Mission can survive the economic challenge that we are currently in. I appreciated the advice, but also wanted to share what specific steps URM is taking to both step up and meet the needs while cutting expenses to survive the challenging times. I hope they are helpful to someone.
From AGRM.org
Take action to survive a tough economy
With money tight and donations trending down, Rescue magazine columnist and administrative consultant Ron Mattocks offers these 10 actions steps to weather the economic downturn:
1. Reduce charitable gift revenue expectations.
2. Reduce expenses. Do not let increased demand drive you to deficit spending.
3. Do not accept anything less than a balanced budget.
4. Develop and maintain a 12-month rolling cash-flow projection.
5. If you borrow short-term funds or draw down on a line of credit, develop a backup plan, assuming that access to credit may be reduced.
6. Initiate an aggressive debt-reduction plan.
7. Defer major expenses/delay new construction.
8. Initiate a hiring freeze.
9. Pay special attention to donor-restricted funds; do not borrow against them.
10. Watch the receivables. Do not accept risk, and do not let them age.
Union Rescue Mission’s Approach:
This season the numbers of families showing up at our door desperate, having lost their homes is up 100% and the number of individuals seeking housing is up 25%. This dire situation has taxed our resources to such an extent that we converted an entire floor formerly used for volunteers to house two parent families and single dads with children. Additionally, meals served per day are up from 2,100 to 2,800 per day, a 30 % increase.
It is also hard to believe this next statistic (I personally found it astounding), but in the first 3 days after opening up our Winter Shelters on December 1st in Burbank, West LA, Culver City and our downtown facility, the same number of families arrived homeless, needing assistance as did in all 3 and ½ months of operating Winter Shelters during the entire Winter Season last year! This is a daunting sign of things to come.
Operationally, this has greatly challenged our financial resources, as it has for many people, but our donations are down over $600,000 this year and our capital campaign to fund our new Hope Gardens Family Center Row for single women with children outside of the mean streets of Skid Row is off by $700,000.
We have taken drastic steps to reduce our costs, while still step up to meet the growing need. URM has frozen hiring, put a freeze on wages, and URM has put a hold on paying the matching portion of our employees 401 K plans. We’ve taken these steps so that we do not add to the ranks of the unemployed and struggling and so that we can keep the necessary staff to care for our guests and live up to URM’s history of stepping up to meet the need as we did during the Great Depression, when we fed 42% of the hungry in the City of Los Angeles. We are praying and planning on what our next steps may be. I hope that you will pray with us. Andy B.
