Pottstown Emergency Hotels, Housing Assistance Funding

The writing is on the wall for unhoused individuals in Pottstown. The largest camp, Tent City, will be closed Jan 2nd by Norfolk Southern. 40 individuals from there and other camps have been placed in hotels for at least 4 months but 120 people out there - 40 - 30 that can go to Beacon of Hope leaves roughly 50 people outside with limited space to stay in because all the larger camps have be totally cleared and no trespassing signs erected. Anyone returning to any of those locations will be swept/fined/arrested.

While I appreciate 40 people getting into hotels - this is not a complete solution, so we are trying to help fill the gaps. Our plan is to get 10 people into rooms a week and stagger it so everyone outside will get a week at least every few weeks. I am building a system in our web app to randomly pick the next ten people that will get a room. However, can't do anything without funding, so that's where this fundraiser comes in. A dollar or 5, anything helps this project, and please share with any and all sympathetic parties. We are also pursuing many grants for this but most grant cycles are closed for the year so it's been tough sledding so far. We also aim to try to help as many people in these rooms as possible with our Housing Assistance Program to see if we can get them off the streets as well.

Today, we're setting our sights high with the goal of raising $30,000 to support this initiative.