Help Church on the Streets

Church on the Streets is a non profit organization that does tremendous good for the community. They allow homeless individuals and ex convicts to stay for up to 15 days or more depending on what you're trying to do. If you simply need somewhere to sleep and eat and thats it, then 15 days is the max as they only have 32 beds available and more people try to get in everyday. They feed you 3 times a day, let you shower daily, have devotion every morning, church every night and they have a plethora of information on different programs to help people for any situation. Their main goal is to transform people's lives through the word of God. If you are trying to work they will help you get a job or you can work for the Church on the Streets in which case they work with you on staying longer and help with whatever you need to succeed. Lastly they have a program for drug and alcohol addicts whom want to stay sober and want to find God. If your there for the rehab program, after staying for a week they give you a UA drug test and once you pass you get to transfer to the Dream center location. If you don't pass in the first week you can wait a second week to try again or if you need longer they'll work with you on that too (since marijuana takes 30 days to pass through your system). Once in the dream center everything changes and it's basically Bible boot camp for 6 months. Wake up at 4 Am and you have church, classes and homework on the word of God every single day. After the 6 months you can choose to go through Phase 2 for another 6 months and then phase 3 for the last 6 months.

What I am here to talk about however is the stop before Dream center and that is the Church on the Streets. I myself went through the program and they changed my life for the better and I could not be more greatful, which is why I'm trying to raise funds to help them because they need it badly. I believe the intent and heart is there but the living conditions are absolutely unbearable and I nearly left to get the help I needed because of this and I would hate for anyone else to want to leave when it could get better. Firstly the place is heavily bug infested. Bed bugs are everywhere and you cant go a night without being bit several times. Cockroaches are everywhere as well, in the bathrooms, showers, and regrettably enough I've seen them crawl out of the food containers. Lastly there is a huge ant and fly problem. There is one outlet outside the everyone has to share for charging phones and using clippers to cut hair so when your standing there you are constantly getting chewed up by ants and it's the worst if you are getting your hair cut. The fly's are a nuisance but honestly quite self explanatory. I feel that if they had enough funds and someone to take the right direction to rid of all these pests then it could be taken care of no problem and would make everyone there vastly far more comfortable.
Another issue there is the food and kitchen. Half the time the food is pretty good but for the most part it is pretty appauling what they try to feed people and I believe its due to lack of funding for the food itself but also due to lack of kitchen space and equipment to keep healthy food standards and practice. There have been mornings where the milk they give us with our cereal came out chunky and already curdled. They've also given us yogurt that was already two weeks or more expired (I actually have some pictures of that I will post). When it comes to dairy like that you can't mess around but I'm pretty sure that's all they can afford. Usually everyday they'll throw out some boxes of donuts and pastry's for everyone to eat but they already look all nasty and melted and I swear one morning I saw Cockroaches crawl straight out of the box itself on three separate occasions meaning they have no where good to store it and no extra fridge space. I feel strongly that help funding in this area would help tremendously and the difference would be ten-fold.

( --Yogurt photo take 7/2/2018 )

(-Milk photo taken 7/2/2018)

Lastly the place just needs help overall for repairs, improvements and more supplies for the men. Additionally I think it would be really amazing if we could raise enough to expand the building and add more beds because they are constantly full and everyday more and more people try to get in but are turned away because there is no space and that breaks the pastor's heart more than anything. There are holes in the bathroom walls. Overall air conditioning is poorly done so in the Summer when it's 120 degrees outside its pretty miserable still inside and even at night trying to sleep can be pretty rough with 32 men especially if your bunk is not right in front of the fan. Additionally, they are always lacking on extra clothes for people as well as all your bathroom supplies like toothpaste, soap, body wash etc.. I actually have a picture I'll post of all the supplies they have that are expected to share between everybody there.

(-All of the bathroom supplies expected to share between everyone.)

(-This hole had been in the bathroom stall for weeks but they've not been able to afford to fix properly.)

I honestly love the place and what they are doing. I whole heartedly believe they are desperately needed in the community and it makes me so happy to see the difference they are making for anybody who is struggling at the worst point in their lives and I would love to see the faculty have more to work with as well. I want everyone to be well healthily fed and for there to be enough hygeine for everyone to be comfortable.