During a time when the U.S. Housing Department reports the number of people facing homelessness in the U.S. has reached the highest level on record due to economic instability and an increasingly unaffordable housing market, HOPE South Florida is poised to tackle the issue of family homelessness in South Florida like never before. Due to an innovative partnership with Calvary Chapel Fort Lauderdale, HOPE South Florida is now under strong leadership that has revamped their entire playbook and brought together a brand-new team aimed at propelling holistic life-change for families and individuals in crisis.
Now calling the plays is Hope South Florida’s Vice Chairman, President and Revitalization Project Lead, Ken McKenzie. McKenzie brings robust business and leadership acumen as the former executive vice president of Airbus and most recently as CEO of the Museum of the Bible in Washington, D.C.
Under McKenzie’s guidance, HOPE South Florida and Calvary Chapel Fort Lauderdale seek to develop strategic partnerships, combining the efforts of local churches, foundations, businesses and individuals with a focus on comprehensive solutions for Broward County’s most vulnerable homeless populations, specifically families in crisis.
Doug Sauder, Lead Pastor at Calvary Chapel Fort Lauderdale said, “By working together, we can fulfill the gospel commission and provide hope, dignity and tangible solutions to those facing homelessness in our community.”
However, McKenzie emphasized that HOPE South Florida remains its own entity. “A team from Calvary is serving alongside HOPE who wants to see it succeed. We have hired a new director of operations, George Rich, changed the bylaws, put in a statement of faith and developed a code of family values that has led to a thriving staff culture.”
The vision and history
Since HOPE South Florida’s start as The Shepherd’s Way 29 years ago, thousands of lives have been impacted by the compassionate care and support of the faith-based nonprofit ministry. After encountering God at a time of crisis in his own life, HOPE South Florida Founder and Chairman Emeritus Fred Scarbrough recalls how he kept returning to Matthew 25:14 in the scriptures: “The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’” This is the foundation behind everything they do.
It all began on Thanksgiving Day in 1995 when Scarborough spoke with people experiencing homelessness during a feeding ministry at “Tent City” in Fort Lauderdale and was moved with compassion when he encountered a mother and father with a five-month-old baby who had no place to spend the night, no diapers and no baby food. Using rooms at various hotels paid for by volunteers at the time, The Shepherd’s Way began housing families.
The grassroots organization became HOPE South Florida in 2010 with the support of key church partners including Calvary Chapel Fort Lauderdale, Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church, First Baptist Fort Lauderdale, First Presbyterian Fort Lauderdale, Mount Bethel Baptist Church and Rio Vista Community Church, among others. By 2016, HOPE had expanded to include shared meals, mobile showers, basic medical care and access to rapid re-housing.
However, like many organizations Hope South Florida struggled in the wake of the COVID pandemic when funding from PPE payments ran out. Some on the leadership team transitioned out and Scarbrough along with HOPE South Florida Chairman Madison Gulley began to look for a new path forward.
Experiencing mission drift, Scarbrough said, “We almost lost our Christian witness and that was just heart wrenching to me. That’s why we reached out to Calvary Chapel Fort Lauderdale and the Stacy Foundation. I wanted to be able to sleep at night knowing this will always be a Christian ministry for family homelessness, and I sleep very well right now.”
HOPE South Florida’s vision is to end homelessness by building HOPE-filled communities that empower families to become resilient and independent. “There’s such a huge immediate need,” said Scarbrough, “but when you open God’s door, when people come to us and want food, or when there’s a need for a shower, we’re going to do it!”
Broward County currently has over 7,000 individuals experiencing homelessness with more than 1,000 families who need permanent, self-sustainable housing. With hundreds seeking aid from HOPE South Florida weekly, there is a community-wide opportunity to reinforce solutions for those who need it most.
With so many needs, McKenzie said “HOPE South Florida ended up trying to be everything to everybody. It really needed to reestablish its compass. So we asked, what is it that we feel called to do and want to be measured against? First and foremost, that has always been families.”
The strategic plan
Hope South Florida’s strategic plan is based on three pillars:
- The first pillar is caring for families through access to housing services.
- The second pillar is offering supportive services. These include parenting classes, financial literacy training, mental health counseling, employment training and more. There are currently seven different classes offered at HOPE South Florida each week.
- The third pillar is providing physical services. These include shared meals, hot showers at their mobile shower unit, mail services, and weekly partnerships that provide eyeglasses as well as limited health care from a Broward Health van.
Last year more than 50 families benefited from rapid re-housing, 20 families were given refuge at transitional crisis housing, 90,000 shared meals were served, 12,000 hot showers were made possible through their mobile shower unit and over 1,000 volunteers served individuals and families.
The services are critical; however, it’s the relationships built while providing these services that really make a difference toward sustaining lasting change. This is because the one underlying factor across all cases of homelessness is a profound loss of family and community.
In fact, Katy Mills, executive director for communications and engagement at Calvary Chapel Fort Lauderdale, pointed out that 50% of the people who are now experiencing homelessness have spent time in foster care. “These were our children,” said Mills. “They aged out of the system and maybe they weren’t supported. They didn’t experience stability early on in life, so they never had it, and HOPE might be their last opportunity to achieve it.”
The team pointed to a few common myths they’d like to dispel. The first myth is that people are homeless because they want to be. McKenzie said he’s never found this to be the case. “Often when you tell someone they need to be in a shelter, they’re saying, I don’t want to go into a shelter because I don’t think I’m going to be safe. It’s not that they want to be homeless. It’s that the options they have before them aren’t palatable, so they take living on the street over options they feel could cause harm.”
The second myth is that all homeless people have an addiction, mental illness or have made a choice that led to destructive behavior. While that may be true in some cases, Denise Trio, director of development for HOPE South Florida, said, “The families we see are working and their rent just doubled. We’re in a housing crisis in South Florida, and we’re finding that it costs us $10,000 to move a family into a home because they’re requiring first, last and double security where the average rent cost for a two-bedroom is $2,500 a month. You need to make a lot of money to sustain that. For a single mom who makes $12 an hour, she just can’t afford her rent anymore.”
In many cases those experiencing homelessness have had their bridges burned, Trio added. “Either they did it by a bad mistake or somebody did it for them. We just want to come along side to help repair those bridges back into society out of poverty into resilience and independence.”
That’s where the mission of HOPE South Florida comes in. “We want to be that hope filled community that keeps those families together because we know that’s going to be the real solution,” said McKenzie. “It’s not just come in for a meal, come in for an overnight shelter, but rather how can we help you make a holistic life change? That’s our mission and what we do.”
Looking to the future
HOPE South Florida is based in a church building located at 1100 N. Andrews Avenue in Fort Lauderdale. “It’s a wonderful piece of property that was gifted to HOPE South Florida more than seven years ago,” said McKenzie. However, the structure is underutilized and in need of renovation.
So, HOPE is launching a capital campaign in order to renovate the first floor of the building for shared meals, supportive services, multi-purpose classrooms and the mailroom. They plan to build out the second floor of the church building for family advocate offices.
Currently families are moved into transitional housing from unsafe situations where they may be living in their car, and typically stay there no longer than four weeks while more permanent housing can be arranged. However, McKenzie said, “Our family advocates are convinced that if we can house a family for up to three months and really get to know them, offer stability, guidance and crisis management services before transitioning them to permanent housing, their success rate two years from now is almost 100 percent.”
They also plan to renovate the exterior areas, adding a beautifully landscaped courtyard with shaded areas for outside activities, a playground for youth and families, and a more dignified café experience. “We want this to be a beautiful refuge, for the parking lots, landscaping and signage to align with our core values and for the neighbors to be really happy with the work we’re doing here,” said Mills.
While the total cost of the project is still being determined, HOPE South Florida anticipates it will need to raise 7 to 10 million dollars to fund the project. They are also seeking business and construction partners who may offset some of those expenses with in-kind contributions.
A community-wide project
Located in the 33311 zip code, HOPE South Florida is positioned in the middle of Fort Lauderdale’s greatest point of need, according to Mills. Because of this, they believe it has the potential to be developed into a place for the community to provide holistic care through multiple nonprofit organizations and services collaborating to provide all of a family’s needs in one central location as more of a one-stop-shop. It could eliminate the need to travel to five different bus stops, traversing across Broward County to get a basic care plan in place. “Could we partner with other organizations to offer support groups and care?” Mills asks. The possibilities are endless, and they continue to seek creative partnerships.
Of course, there are many churches that have been long term partners, helping HOPE South Florida provide a HOPE-filled community, keep families together, provide compassionate care and equip those experiencing homelessness to make a holistic life change.
For example, Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church has provided financial support, volunteers to help facilitate mail services and help with special projects at HOPE South Florida for years. Duane Mellor, director of outreach at Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church, said, “We felt that as a church we should be inclined to help with the areas that can really bring light to the city. At one point, when I asked Mayor Dean Trantalis what the city’s most pressing need was, he said the homeless issue. So that really compelled us to work with HOPE South Florida.”
Mount Olivet Seventh Day Adventist Church has been a long-time partner with HOPE South Florida providing meals and previously mobile showers. “We serve a hot meal every Wednesday from 4:00 to 5:30 p.m., which adds up to about 300 to 400 meals per month, said Cynthia Holmes, community service ministry director at Mount Olivet. She said their involvement has allowed them to develop relationships with those coming for meals that has resulted in ministry opportunities.
Chris Reney, senior pastor at Church by the Sea, said HOPE South Florida is one of seven ministries they support financially and with time and talent because “their focus is obviously on Jesus Christ and trying to help the least of these. And as a small church with great desire but limited resources, we want to support them as the experts who are helping a segment of our population that is often overlooked.”
Nic Merchant, pastor of First Presbyterian Church Fort Lauderdale, said he remembers HOPE South Florida since its creation as The Shepherd’s Way. The church has supported the ministry and been involved in a variety of capacities since the beginning. However, one creative initiative inspired by their youth is the tradition of “Socktober.” Every October the youth lead a sock collection drive that has resulted in thousands of pairs of socks being donated to HOPE South Florida over the past few years. Merchant said, “It all started when we asked what items are often needed, and the answer came back – socks.”
How can you help?
Homelessness is a community-wide issue that requires the entire community pulling together each one’s unique giftings to resolve it. How can your group, business or organization get involved? Consider the following needs, knowing that your time, talent or treasure will have an eternal impact.
- Volunteers – Beyond serving meals, volunteers are needed at the facility to build hygiene bags for the mobile showers, to organize mail, greet guests, to serve at special events and more.
- Partnerships – Church, ministry and business partnerships are welcome.
- Financial Contributions – Funds are currently being raised for the capital campaign and to meet the growing need for services. Your contributions could pay for a bus pass for a month, a week of meals, an electric bill for a family in need, an emergency hotel stay for a family in crisis, or to help furnish a new apartment for a family.
- Prayer – It can be a violent, tough world on the streets, so please cover the staff, leadership, clients and families with prayer.
For more details, visit hopesouthflorida.org
For more Good News, read the GOOD NEWS August 2024 issue at: https://digital.goodnewsfl.org/2024/august/#1
