Mike Foster

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  Mike commented on the article | over 2 years ago

  Shelters Fix House-lessness, Not Homelessness

  I hate to see issues like this painted with such a broad brush. There are many shelters that are much more than "homeless shelters". Our organization, the Winston-Salem Rescue Mission provides a temporary home for nearly 130 men at any given time and we focus on a holistic approach to recovery for these inidividuals. We offer a 90-day and two different levels of 1-year recovery and transformation programs for all residents. Job-skills, G.E.D. prep, life-skills, computer education classes, transportation, job and housing assistance, family reconciliation, etc, are part of the services we try to wrap around our resident's experience. We want to see complete transformation...not just offer band-aids. Are we perfect? Far from it, but there are many organizations like ours across the country who offer much more than you mention in your piece. I understand your issue with "homelessness" vs "houselessness"...I just really get discouraged when I see issues such as this lumping a large group together and not recognizing that there are folks carrying out impactful work, that truly is making a change.