Amherst Alarm - A part of the Community

Lockport CARES, Inc. was conceived in the summer of 2007. Jim Haid, Director of Outreach Ministry at St. John the Baptist Roman Catholic Church, recognized the growing need for emergency shelter in the community (St. John’s Outreach Center provided assistance to approximately 150 homeless individuals in 2007). In June of 2007, he called together a group of people to explore possible responses to the issue. The people who came to this meeting represented a broad spectrum of social service organizations, charities, businesses, and churches. Lockport CARES began to take shape.

An acronym that stands for Community Action Response Emergency Shelter, Lockport CARES has organized to provide charitable relief in the form of emergency shelter, material needs, and compassionate care for the homeless and persons in need. It has been incorporated as a not-for-profit corporation in the State of New York and has submitted an application for 501C3 not-for-profit status with the Internal Revenue Service.

As stated earlier, homelessness is on the rise in Niagara County, New York. This is a direct result of a failing economy, the rise in unemployment and under-employment, higher gas and utility costs, the struggling housing market, the lack of affordable low income housing, and cuts in social services. With the increase in the number of individuals and/or families who find themselves without shelter, more facilities and/or beds are needed. Niagara County has only one emergency shelter, and this is in Niagara Falls, which is over 30 miles from Lockport. The Niagara Falls shelter has only twenty beds to serve men, women, children, and families.

No one agency, church, business, or civic club has the means to provide the hundreds of homeless in our community with adequate shelter. Thus, by calling together all of these “groups” to form a single coalition/corporation, we cannot only “pool” our resources of people, knowledge, finances, gifts, and talents, but we can make Lockport CARES a community endeavor – a community that truly CARES about its homeless population.

Lockport CARES, Inc. will be an “emergency shelter” designed to assist men, women, children, and families who have no place to go. It will provide them with shelter and meals for up to ten days. While staying at the shelter, the guests of Lockport CARES will be assisted with and guided in the means necessary to become self-supporting once again. This could include, but not be limited to, registering for benefits through te Department of Social Services, participating in G. E. D. classes or job training programs, counseling or other support groups, working with “public housing” or other providers in order to find the residents more adequate or permanent housing, credit/financial counseling, legal assistance, as well as providing them with furniture and household items once a more permanent residence is found.

Certain building codes and other requirements must be adhered to in order to provide the homeless and the volunteers who serve them with a dignified, comfortable, respectful, and safe shelter. The home which is being donated to Lockport CARES has two, two-bedroom apartments, a third floor loft, and a one-bedroom apartment above a three-bay garage. The codes and renovations that need to be addressed immediately are: a new roof on both buildings, installation of a wheelchair ramp, first floor apartment being converted into a handicap accessible apartment, some new windows, painting of all rooms, a new kitchen floor in the second floor apartment, and other minor repairs and upgrades.

In order to keep costs down, and for the greater community to participate in the mission of Lockport CARES, we have “networked” with a variety of individuals, agencies, churches, businesses, and organizations (including the local Habitat for Humanity) to oversee and perform the majority of the renovations. With this in mind, we are still estimating the total costs of renovations to be approximately thirty thousand dollars ($30,000). This figure represents the cost of materials, as well as the labor costs of some professional contractors.

We are also in the process of soliciting funds for the “setting up of the house,” its daily operations, as well as countless other smaller projects.

This directive of seeking assistance from the greater community, especially in terms of volunteers, is the heart of how Lockport CARES, Inc. will operate, not only with its Board of Directors, but also on a daily basis with the staffing of the shelter. Professional agencies such as the Red Cross, the YWCA, and Family and Children Services will train volunteers in the skills of running a “24/7" homeless shelter.

Lockport CARES, Inc. emerged from the community in order to meet the needs of the homeless in the community. Our desire is to reach out to those in our community who are homeless because of, in many cases, circumstances beyond their control. We wish to provide them with a place where they will be treated and cared for with the respect, dignity, and compassion that they deserve as fellow human beings. We wish to enable them to move forward and to begin anew with all the resources at our/their disposal, so that they can live a more dignified and noble life.