Dear Friends,
We need your help. As you’re probably aware, in 2020 ImmaCare completed a transformative renovation of our emergency shelter allowing us to have a modern facility that not only meets all building codes, but also provides shelter clients with the infrastructure and services that they most deserve as they transition to permanent housing. Not surprisingly, we’ve also been met with correspondingly higher operating and maintenance costs associated with the upgrades, including for the elevator, HVAC system, fire sprinklers and generator, as well as the need to keep wages and benefits competitive to retain staff and inflation, which has impacted our operations and increased costs about 12-15 percent across the board.
Like other organizations providing services to those experiencing homelessness since the unprecedented COVID-19 pandemic, clients served by ImmaCare have benefited from the generosity of our government funders, private foundations, donors and other supporters who made sure we had the appropriate resources to safely provide emergency services to our clients.
For this, we can’t thank you enough.
We’re now preparing the budget for our upcoming fiscal year, and the numbers for our Emergency Shelter program are not balancing out. With most, if not all, of the COVID dollars going away, as well as the retirement of some of our food groups on whom we rely to supply meals, our new Shelter Budget has a projected deficit of approximately $50,000.
In light of this challenge, we’re concerned that if we are unable to meaningfully close the deficit, we’ll be forced to make some tough choices which could include such things as not providing lunch to the clients served in the emergency shelter or force us to make the difficult decision to close the shelter during the day and put our clients out on the street.
We have set a goal to generate $50,000 in 50 days.
We ask that you consider making an impactful investment that will help ImmaCare offer a safe haven with dignity to our clients experiencing homelessness.
None of these hard decisions come easily to the Board of Directors or our Executive Leadership. However, we won’t be whole unless this critical funding is raised.
Will you please invest in ImmaCare and allow individuals experiencing homelessness to stay safe and continue to work on getting housed?
To invest in ImmaCare, click here.
Or, contact Director of Strategic Development Teresa Wierbicki at (860) 580-5644 or twierbicki@immacare.org
Sincerely,
Lou Gilbert, Executive Director
and
Mark Welzenbach, Board Chair