June 11, 2020
Friends of Presbyterian Night Shelter,
As we move towards summer and things in our community begin to open, I want to give you an update on how Presbyterian Night Shelter continues to serve our guests. Over the past 3 months, daily operations underwent a whirlwind of change, from staff responsibilities, to cleaning protocols, to service capacity, but your support through it all remained unwavering, and for that I am deeply grateful.
Starting June 8th all Presbyterian Night Shelter staff returned to campus in both essential and non-essential roles. We are thrilled to have everyone back and working together to provide our guests resources and services. Case management has resumed for all programs and is being held at True Worth Place in an effort to maintain social distancing best practices. Although case management has been suspended since the middle of March, we have continued moving guests out of homelessness and into sustainable living, including 47 guests in April! Our rapid rehousing efforts have increased during this time as well, with support from local and state governments equipping us to reduce the risk of guests living in congregate areas.
The overflow shelter generously provided by the City of Fort Worth will cease operation over the coming weeks. We are slowly increasing the capacity in the Karl Travis Men’s Center and the Lowden-Schutts Women’s Center, moving towards full operation in both buildings to accommodate the guests coming from the overflow shelter. As we increase our service capacity and resume normal operations, the health and safety of guests and staff members has always been and will continue to be a top priority. We are monitoring updates from state and local governments, while maintaining health procedures like increased cleaning protocols, wearing masks/gloves, and social distancing, will ensure success when protecting the health of everyone at Presbyterian Night Shelter.
The energy around increasing service capacity and resuming normal operations on campus is palpable; employees across our seven programs are eager to continue working with guests to move out of homelessness and into sustainable living. Although it is exciting to ramp up our work, the additional costs associated with resuming normal operations while maintaining increased cleaning and health protocols have not let up. Please consider making a donation to best equip Presbyterian Night Shelter to continue providing basic services and resources to our neighbors experiencing homelessness.
Each and every member of the Presbyterian Night Shelter family is thankful for your continued support as we work together to guide the journey from homeless to home.
Sincerely,
Toby Owen, CEO
