The Need
Lebanon has people in need of shelter. They can be seen sitting on a downtown bench with a paper bag in hand, camping in an abandoned house, looking hungrily through the window of a local restaurant, inside thrift shops seeking clothing, at the doors of your churches mid–week, asking for help, at the local food banks or the Soup Kitchen, and along the river banks.
We have identified over 40 Lebanon citizens who need homes, including some women and children. We are housing five male residents in our first supportive housing rental, and can house two women and a child in our women's apartment. The population count varies with circumstances.
- About 30% nationwide are mentally–ill veterans, which is just as disabling as physical injury.
- Some were put out of now–closed state institutions. Without the community–based programs that were supposed to be waiting for them, they ended up on the street.
- Others suddenly had too many medical bills and couldn’t meet their mortgage or rent payments.
- Some have substance abuse problems, and need a caring first contact to intervene.
- Some need encouragement to restart their education, whether it is getting a GED, or taking training classes at local colleges to retrain themselves for a new job.
- We are currently encouraging such educational efforts by residents of ChristWalk House. We seek your help to continue.
Our History
Our project is the outgrowth of a meeting in February, 2005, of 18 service providers from Scio, Brownsville, Lebanon and Sweet Home. These caregivers—who currently serve low–income and homeless people with food banks, clothing boxes, and soup kitchens—all agreed that the greatest need of the homeless in the Greater Lebanon Area is for overnight shelter that allows a framework for rehabilitation, responsibility and accountability. We must help the homeless lose their sense of worthlessness and hopelessness so they can become proud, contributing citizens
We plan to work closely with all agencies, public or non–profit, who are helping the poor. We take part in the Linn County 10-Year Plan to End Homelessness, which has identified approximately 220 homeless adults, as well as some 313 children, in the Greater Lebanon area. Our goal is to do all we possibly can to end chronic homelessness for these citizens who are so vulnerable, who are most in need of our help.