Churches United for the Homeless

CU provides Safe Shelter, Stable Housing, Nutritious Food, and a Path Toward Healing to our neighbors in need. All persons are welcome regardless of faith or spiritual perspective, including those who embrace no faith tradition or practice.Churches United provides shelter, support services, community meals and gatherings for people experiencing or at-risk of homelessness. We consist of two food pantries, three shelters, and one permanent supportive housing apartment complex. Our largest shelter, Micah's Mission, is the only shelter in our area that shelters, men, women, and families. Our food pantry in Moorhead is the largest consumer choice pantry in the area. Micah's Mission Shelter and Community Center, located at 1901 1st Ave N in Moorhead, provides emergency shelter and housing focused case management. There are 51 individual beds and 8 family rooms. Micah's Mission also has allocated space for guest to enter overflow when the need is the greatest. Micah's Mission has a maximum shelter capacity of 112 people. Usually, the community center is open daily from 8am to 7pm, and offers two hot meals every day, a daily bread shelf, nursing services, and other necessities for day-to-day life. The Dorothy Day House, located at 714 8th St S in Moorhead, is a small men's shelter with 16 beds serving our most vulnerable men in the community in a homelike setting. Dorothy Day House also operates a Medical Respite program, which offers greater medical oversight for those recovering from acute injuries or illnesses. Usually, community members are welcome to come and use the laundry and shower services Monday through Friday and receive necessities for day-to-day life.The addition of the Safe Haven in 2021 added a 3rd shelter location of 27 beds for emergency shelter for women who are not accompanied by children.In 2022, 379 households, 561 individuals were sheltered through MM, 74 individuals sheltered at DDH, and 152 individuals served at Safe Haven, total of 787 unduplicated individuals. Of those served 121 were seniors aged 55+ and 152 of those were children.; and 207,956 meals were served between the three sites. Dorothy Day Food Pantry, located at 1308 Main Ave in Moorhead, is open 5 days a week: Monday and Wednesday from 6pm to 8pm, Tuesday and Thursday 1pm-3pm and Friday's 9am-11am. Dorothy Day Food Pantry West, in West Fargo, is a consumer-choice food pantry model. The pantry is open from 2:00pm to 4:00pm on Monday and Wednesdays. Dorothy Day Food Pantry's operate as a consumer choice pantry model focusing on easy access and nutritious food options for our neighbors in need. In 2022 the pantries served a total of 32,199 individuals and distributed over 752,000 pounds of food to households in need. Of the individuals served, Bright Sky Apartments, located at 3305 3rd Ave N in Moorhead, is owned and operated by Churches United. The building provides 43-units of permanent supportive housing in a clean and safe environment. Supportive services include case management and referral, health support, weekly food distribution as well as support and empowerment groups. BSA consists of 43 units ranging from efficiencies to 4-bedroom apartments. In 2022 more than 40 households were housed at the Bright Sky Apartments. These households were comprised of 77 adults and 65 children. CU relies primarily on its growing family of supporting faith communities as well as the broader and for support in fulfilling our mission to provide Safe Shelter, Stable Housing, Nutritious Food, and a Path Toward Healing. In 2022, over 2,500 volunteers gave their time in support of our mission across our five locations.We measure our success in direct relation to our mission statement of providing Safe Shelter, Stable Housing, Nutritious Food, and a Path Toward Healing for our neighbors in need. In terms of safe shelter and stable housing, we track the number of guests who stay at our two shelters and tenants at our permanent supportive housing apartment according to their demographic information (age, gender, race, chronic health conditions, where they have stayed previously, and other HMIS information), as well as the number of guests who return to our shelter after being placed in stable housing. We keep a cumulative count of the number of nights guests sleep in a safe bed at our shelters over the course of a year. Being able to shelter more guests shows our success in helping the community. As it relates to nutritious food, we record the total number of households served, the number of unique visitors to our pantries, the number of pounds of food distributed, and demographic information about our pantry visitors. Providing more meals to our guests and community is a measure of our success. As regards a path toward healing, we record the number of client appointments with our shelter nurses. Qualitatively, every guest at our shelters receives comprehensive case management. We document all the meetings, keeping detailed case notes about each household, their goals, and the steps they are taking to reach these goals. Additionally, we measure our community support by recording the number of volunteers, the number of hours served, and the number of organizations and faith communities who support our work. Bringing health care to those who need it is an additional measure of our success.We excel at providing comprehensive care for community members who are experiencing housing insecurity in all stages of their transition from homelessness into permanent stable housing. Our goal is to make homelessness brief, rare, and non-reoccurring. Churches United according to housing-first principles, meaning our on-site case management works with our guests to create goals that lead towards safe, stable, sustainable housing. Along with our on-site case management, Churches United provides a shelter nurse in partnership with Sanford Health. The shelter nurse assists guests with scheduling appointments, medication refills, and daily health concerns. With a person-centered approach as our model for care, we treat people with dignity and respect and involve them in decisions relating to them. Our shelters are low-barrier and provide wrap-around care for the most vulnerable in our community by meeting them where they are at with the least number of restrictions. Churches United practices harm-reduction by implementing practical strategies and ideas aimed at reducing negative consequences. There is a renovation of at Micah's Mission that started 2022 and will be completed in 2023 (which will add 5 family rooms and 3 medical respite rooms) increase our ability to meet the need for safe shelter. Churches United currently owns and operates one permanent supportive housing complex, The Bright Sky Apartments. We will be constructing a second permanent supportive housing building in 2023-2024. This new building, The Silver Linings Apartments, will provide 36 units of deeply affordable housing to seniors 55 and older.