What if you had to face a blizzard while you and your family were living in an unheated camper, or worse, a tent down a long two-track on state land? For the homeless in Newaygo and surrounding counties, this scenario became terrifyingly real last month. As our housing staff worked frantically, temporarily housing the most vulnerable, Lisa Reinecke, our Housing Data, Grant Compliance and Training Manager said this, a day before the blizzard hit;

“We have emergency motel money we can utilize in all four counties (Lake, Mason, Newaygo and Oceana), but the biggest obstacle with this money is all the work it entails for grant compliance (about a 1-2-hour process with each person) and the amount we can get reimbursed per night ($85 per night). We only have two motels in Newaygo County that will work with us, one of which is almost at capacity, with only one room left. If we had unrestricted money, we could utilize other hotels in the area.” 

To help prevent this situation from happening again, we have set up a dedicated donation funding stream for Homeless Prevention Services. By simply visiting here and making a secure, online donation, we will have a reserve of unrestricted funds our Homeless Prevention staff can use as needed.