KANSAS CITY, Kan. – Love Outreach, a Kansas City, Kansas, emergency shelter for men, may possibly have to close its doors due to funding.
“What this place does, it makes you feel warm,” Kenneth Traughber said. “It makes you feel like you're at home.”
Traughber has called Love Outreach home for the past few months.
“We all start at the bottom and when you leave here you're at the top,” he said. “It makes you a whole lot better.”
The shelter does a rotation for men, where it houses 17 men for 90 days.
“There's such a need for homelessness and oftentimes what we've experienced is that society really turns their head to homeless people,” Pastor Charles O. Bailey said. “They'd just rather not deal with it, rather not process what they're going through in their mind, and it's kind of just a lost art of love that society ought to have.”
Leaders of the shelter say they're seeking roughly $10,000 to help keep up with utilities and maintenance for the men who rely on the shelter.
"Financial, sustainability, having the resources to go forward to pay our bills, they're quite high,” Bailey said. “You have 17 men taking a shower, you're going to have a pretty high water bill. We've experienced that even more recently, as well as utilities.”
Bailey said they’re also being faced with staffing issues; a shortage they need to resolve in order to continue serving those in need. They’re also looking for board members.
Bailey said he has personal experience with being homeless.
“I was homeless when I was 15 years old, and so I've been taking care of myself when I was 15, when I was out in the elements,” Bailey said.
He said he hopes this financial setback is temporary so he and his team can continue to help those in need.
“Hopefully as this ministry grows and expands, that we can help a whole lot more people,” Bailey said.
The shelter set up a GoFundMe page to tackle its financial issue.
For more information, click here.
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