March 14, 2024 • 19 mins
We are joined by: Amanda Bomfim, Director of Marketing & Program Initiatives for The Community Foundation of Harrisonburg & Rockingham County; Shannon Porter, Executive Director of Mercy House; and Noah Yoder, After Care Case Manager of Mercy House.
Great Community Give is a community wide giving day for local partner nonprofit organizations, April 17, 2024 from 6:00am to 8:00pm. All online donations this day will be through www.greatcommunitygive.org and/or given directly via cash and check gifts. All donations are tax-deductible.
Mercy House is a nonprofit organization with multiple programs combating poverty and homelessness in Harrisonburg, Virginia. As a provider of family shelter, rapid re-housing and homelessness prevention services; our agency is committed to restoring our clients to self-sufficiency by addressing the barriers and challenges that led to housing instability or experiencing homelessness. Mercy House serves the City of Harrisonburg, and provides services to clients within Rockingham, Augusta, and Page Counties.
Great Community Give is a community wide giving day for local partner nonprofit organizations, April 17, 2024 from 6:00am to 8:00pm. All online donations this day will be through www.greatcommunitygive.org and/or given directly via cash and check gifts. All donations are tax-deductible.
Mercy House is a nonprofit organization with multiple programs combating poverty and homelessness in Harrisonburg, Virginia. As a provider of family shelter, rapid re-housing and homelessness prevention services; our agency is committed to restoring our clients to self-sufficiency by addressing the barriers and challenges that led to housing instability or experiencing homelessness. Mercy House serves the City of Harrisonburg, and provides services to clients within Rockingham, Augusta, and Page Counties.
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Episode Transcript
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(00:00):
Shanandoa Valley. Business Break is apodcast about local business and community happenings and
and around the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia. I'm Chris Carmichael. I'm here with
Amanda Bonfam. She's with the GreatCommunity Give, which is just about a
month away, coming up on Aprilseventeenth. That's the third Wednesday in April,
when it's your seventh year. Yes, and so we're trying to raise
(00:23):
just a ton of money for allthe great community organizations in Harrisonburg and Rockham
County. Yes. So we arecalling on Harrisonburg and Rockingham greater community to
come out and show their love forthe participating nonprofits. And we're hoping to
raise two million again for those deservinglocal organizations. Now it's two million what
(00:44):
we raised last year. Yes,it was two million, five hundred and
forty five. We reached that twomillion dollar goal right in the last few
seconds of the GCG twenty twenty threeevent. And I don't think I've ever
been more stressed in my life.If you get close, that's enough,
right, Yes, of course,any amount raised is, you know,
amazing. We're so grateful and thankfuleach year that the community shows out their
(01:10):
support and they're excited about giving backto local causes, and yeah, we're
hoping to kind of repeat that thisyear, that level of excitement. But
something's different because it's the seventh year. So this year it's a little bit
different because the minimum donation is actuallychanged from ten dollars to seven dollars.
(01:33):
So in celebration of it being theseventh year, on the seventeenth, you
can give back to local causes forseven dollars or more. So that means
people can give to one organization forseven, two for fourteen, three for
twenty one and so on. Ilove it and it's really easy to give.
It is it's very easy to give. We try our best to make
it as intuitive as possible. Ifpeople are interested, they can go to
(01:56):
great Community give dot org and researchall the low causes that address all the
needs of our area and learn abouttheir stories and connect with those that mean
something to you and yeah, getready to give on April seventeenth. The
website is very easy to use.There's a shopping cart feature so you can
give to more than one organization atthe same time. So we try our
(02:21):
best to make it as easy aspossible to give. Yeah, I really
like the website great community give dotorg. You've got pictures from previous events,
you've got information about all the localcommunity organizations that you've teamed up with,
and really easy to give. Thatis it seven dollars a month or
just a seven dollars donation as theminimum? Seven dollars is the minimum,
(02:42):
So you can give seven dollars.I heck, that's that's what it costs
to get fast food now exactly,So you can more than that, give
seventy dollars. Right, give youa cup of coffee or whatever it is
that day, and you can giveseven dollars. And I promise each and
every gift means something really important tothose organizations. Every gift counts truly,
and one of those organizations is MercyHouse. Yes, and we're really honored
(03:06):
to have in the studio Shannon Porter, who's the executive director of Mercy House.
Also Noah Yoder, who is theaftercare case manager, and gentlemen,
it's good to see you, goodmorning. Thank you for having us.
Shannon. Why don't we start offby just that top look down on what
Mercy House is. Who do youhelp? How do you help them and
(03:27):
how can we help you well.Mercy House is a first of all,
a really remarkable organization. I'm veryblessed to have the opportunity to be a
part of it. It's a localgrassroots nonprofit that works on issues related to
helmelessness and housing in Harrisburg and RockinghamCounty. We have a at our core,
a family shelter that has been operatingsince our inception that helps take local
(03:50):
families that would otherwise potentially having tobe on the street, or living in
their car, or living in anothershelter environment that does not provide them quite
the support and consistency that our programdoes, maybe an open plan barracks type
type of shelter, whereas we actuallyprovide a apartment for families to be able
to spend time together and put theirlives back together. Our agency also is
(04:13):
a homeless services organization that does thingslike rapid rehousing, which is a process
of taking someone who's currently homeless andgetting them back into permanent housing. We
also have homelesss provintion services for thoseindividuals that might be in danger of losing
their housing and have no other options. We might be able to help find
a way to catch their rent backup and get them back on track.
We also have a lot of supportivecase management services that focus on a myriad
(04:38):
of issues that might impact people's abilityto sustain their housing. And that's where
Noah comes in. He's from oneof our outstanding case managers that works with
families once we get them back intohousing. So, Noah, how do
you get introduced to your clients?Are they being recommended? Are they reaching
out to you? Are you goingout and talking to other organizations to help?
(05:00):
Yeah, I think all of theabove. Honestly, there's a really
high demand for our services in thisarea. And what ends up happening is
we have what's called the Centralized HousingIntake Line that we're the lead agent on
and so we receive thousands of callsa month that we are processing and triaging
trying to fix whatever is going on, trying to address the issue that that
(05:24):
family or that individual is facing.So when I'm working with folks, it's,
like Shannon said, it's going tobe after we've moved them through our
main programs and into housing, andI'm working with them to make sure that
they have a good budget in place, that their children are being taken care
of, and that we're creating aplan to ensure that they don't have to
experience that homelessness ever again, thatthey don't have to go through that.
(05:46):
And so I'm working a lot onthe long term plan for these folks.
But for the Great Community to give, what we're really trying to focus on
is meeting the families where they're atwhen they come into our shelter. And
the coolest part about Mercy House isjust how much we care for each of
those families. We try to getto know them, try to figure out
(06:09):
who they are, what are thechallenges that they're facing, and then we
provide them with a sense of normalcy. And that's why we really want to
invest in our playground this year.It is a space that is really a
catalyst for community. These families canbreathe a sigh of relief knowing that they
can shut the door at night andbe safe and their kids can be playing
on a safe and secure and accessibleplayground. So that's why we're really excited
(06:31):
this year for the Great Community togive. It's so important. This isn't
going to be, you know,a cheap endeavor, though. We need
a lot of people to select MercyHouse and give more than seven dollars,
at least seven dollars. Sure,yeah, absolutely, you know, the
great community give is awesome because youcan go online and you can figure out
what speaks to you. And sowe are hoping that individuals in this community
(06:55):
can find purpose and a calling forour mission and find some thing in what
we're doing that speaks to them.And we would love the support because,
yes, like you say, playgroundsand infrastructure are expensive these days. Yes,
say, I can't imagine when you'retalking about individual apartments, and I
understand you guys do birthday parties forthe kids and a big Christmas party every
(07:16):
year, that's all. I mean, that's a lot of money, right,
it is. It is. Butwe you know, the community has
been so great to us over theyears, and we are so foreign to
be able to do the work thatwe do, and to be able to
do it at this high of alevel. It's taken. It's taken a
village to get to this point.And what we're looking for in the future
is to build a space that willbe that community for the families in our
(07:42):
in our neighborhood that are experiencing homelessness. This is Business break and we are
talking about the Great Community Give whichis coming up on April seventeenth. You
just point click and give at GreatCommunity Give dot org seventh anniversary. One
of the great organizations that you canhelp out the year is Mercy Houson.
We're speaking with Shannon Porter, theexecutive director, and Noah Yoda, the
(08:05):
aftercare case manager from Mercy Houson.Noah, you said that you get a
thousand applications a month. That didI hear that right? Our? Yeah,
let me back up on that.So our centralized housing intake which serves
the entire containment of care. Sowe're talking about Shenandoah Page, Augusta County,
Rockingham County. That hotline receives thousandsof calls. We serve forty five
(08:26):
families in our shelter every calendar year, and we typically have people who are
trioged on a less to get intoshelter. It's unfortunate that we have that
many people who are in need,and our means only allow us to help
a certain number of those. Benice to be able to have extra money
(08:46):
at the end and have an apartmentfor all all that are doing. That's
why It's so important that you helpout what the Great Community Give, because
not only Mercy House, there areone hundred and fifty seven organizations that are
helping here in Rockingham and the cityof Harrisonburg and the surrounding areas. And
for just seven dollars for a minimumbid at Great Community give dot org,
(09:11):
you can start to help those organizations. And I think the Mercy House is
just doing wonderful work. I don'tknow if people realize. I think homelessness
can really be a secret issue becauseyou're in your home, you don't see
at night when it's cold, theperson who needs a home, and not
because of you know, bad choicesor decisions. I mean that can just
(09:35):
be something as simple as you know, your housing disappeared. You were staying
with someone and they say I can'thave you stay here anymore, and you
don't you don't have the funds toget get back on your feet just yet.
Yeah. Absolutely, we you know, we serve any individual who is
experiencing homelessness and we try to getthem back into permanent housing. What's the
(09:56):
dynamic that's shifted in our community sincethe pan has been a lot of local
landlords have either had no other choiceto or have wanted to sell their properties
to property management companies, and thatadds a level of screening that weeds out
a lot of the folks that wework with. During the counter year from
twenty twenty two and twenty twenty three, I had three individual women who had
(10:18):
master's degrees on my caseload, nofault of their own that they lost their
housing. But if their apartment getssold and the landlord wants to, you
know, make some renovations and increasethe rent, that locks them out of
housing, and that creates instability thatcosts our community, and so we're actively
trying to combat that as well.Wow, I love the work that you
(10:39):
guys are doing, Shannon. Whatelse do we need to know about Mercy
House? Well, I just wantto kind of step in and also just
add that I think one of thebiggest issues that we're seeing in the community
right now is that our housing marketis changing. When I started at Mercy
House ten years ago, we wereable to place families into housing fairly quickly.
(11:00):
Are staying in our shelter longer,and it's a lot harder for us
to find suitable housing for people thatthey can afford the rental rates have gone
up significantly, particularly since the pandemic, and we've had a vacancy rate in
our community that's been less than twopercent for over a decade, so there's
not that many units out there.James Madison University has grown and there's a
(11:22):
greater demandents for housing, and alot of those students are leaving what we
consider traditional student housing and are nowgoing into arrangements where they're taking homes that
would have normally been multi family homesfor working people and now they're being rented
out by the bedroom to students.And we're seeing a shift in our market
that is really making it very toughon local people to be able to sustain
their housing. So it is broaderthan just Mercy House. This really is
(11:46):
an issue that I think is affectingthe fabric of our community and it's something
that if we don't address housing instabilityon a more systemic and broader level than
just even our organization, there's goingto be significant concerns for our community going
forward. As the executive director nexttwelve months, what's your biggest struggle.
I think continuing to advance our organization'smission by adapting to what is a quickly
(12:11):
changing scenario in our community as faras how we can deliver services to get
our families back into housing. Weare seriously as an organization considering getting more
directly involved in the development of housing, or securing more housing that we would
be under our ownership and actually rentcontrolling that housing in such a way that
would be affordable for people. Thereality is is that even though wages have
(12:33):
gone up in our community in thelast couple of years and kind of you
know, there's been a big pushto get everybody to fifteen dollars, but
the reality is is if you're asingle mother with a couple of kids,
fifteen dollars an hour and you're workingthirty to thirty five hours a week,
it's not enough to afford a twobedroom home in this community right now.
And that's a real concern. Thoseare families that you know, you would
(12:54):
not normally think of them as beingcandidates for homelessness. But the reality is
that we're a lot more people inthat circumstance. And that's really my concern
when I go to bed at nightand I think about where's mercy, how
is going to be in a year? Is what can we do to stay
ahead of that trend, and whatsort of solutions or what innovations can we
make in our model to be ableto do a better job of ensuring that
(13:15):
that doesn't happen. How can wehelp you get to that goal? I
think it starts with a community awarenessof housing and how important it is.
There are a lot of other factorsthat destabilize housing, and I want to
be clear about this. We couldbuild more housing and we're still going to
have a problem because it's it's complex, and there's also issues related to things
(13:35):
like transportation, childcare, sustainable employment, being able to address things like physical
and mental health. It has ahuge impact on our families. You know,
my prodecessor, Twilight Lee, whoused to be the director of the
agency, talked about it as beingthe power of one that one thing that
throws a family that is balanced andmoving forward out of balance and eventually causes
(13:58):
them their housing. And that couldbe a are breaking down, that could
be a child getting sick. Wesaw that during the pandemic, where a
lot of people's ability to be ableto come into work and make an income
was severely impacted. But the realityis for somebody in our community today.
They are either losing a job becausedo is they can't care for their child,
or the car went out and they'vejust had their last point at the
(14:22):
chicken processing plants that they're working atand have gotten fired, and now they
can't pay their rent. And thereality is is that these are people who
are already living paycheck to paycheck andnow they're facing probably one of the scariest
things I can imagine, which isbeing homeless, particularly if you have children.
When you describe all that, itsounds dark, it's dark. But
(14:43):
the light in all this is wehave Mercy House. Well, we're blessed
to be in that position. AndI will also tell you that we go
back to the great community. Giventhe number of organizations that they're serving.
We have so many great partners inthis community that are doing work in all
of those areas where we're not experts, whether that be childcare or an organization
(15:03):
like Way to Go, which isproviding transportation to working people, or you
know, organizations that are focusing onwhich is becoming a larger group of our
clients, the elderly organizations like Vpass. There's a lot of people now in
a cross section of a facing homelessnessthat are not just working families, but
it's up and down the spectrum.We're seeing a lot more people on fixed
(15:24):
incomes also facing homelessness, and that'sa concern and we can't do it all
alone. So we are grateful tothe fact that we have the resources and
the ability to assist roughly forty fiveto fifty families in shelter and another two
hundred to two hundred and fifty familiesto access housing. Generally is what we
do in a year, but it'sa bigger problem than that, and it
(15:46):
takes more organizations than just ours tomake it happen. You have a website
that we can go to to getmore information about Our website is the Mercyhouse
dot org. And Chris, I'dalso like to just take a moment and
highlight the good work that our Thriststores do in the community. A lot
of people in Harrison, Marya andRockingham County only know our organization through our
Thrist stores. They're located up onNorth High Street and South High Street.
(16:11):
We're going to change that. They'relocated on South High Street and they are
an essential part of our organization.They are a social enterprise that helps fund
our shelter. We don't receive anystate or federal dollars to actually support the
actual operations of our shelter. Butalso they have a real service mission attached
to them as well. Many ofthe employees that work at the store are
(16:32):
former clients of ours that have beenable to come into a supportive employment environment,
get a good living wage, andbe able to stabilize their lives,
and we're able to work with themto adjust their schedules in such a way
that they can take care of theirfamilies or deal with medical issues or whatever
it is that might be impacting theircircumstance. But also those stores have become
a really important resource for a lotof people who are survival shopping. There's
(16:55):
a lot of people that purchase theirkids clothes for school. There's a lot
of people who need the services thatwe are providing there. They're buying their
furniture, their mattresses, those sortsof things actually there at a price that
they can afford. We provide goodsin a way that people who are not
able to go down to the mallor even order something offline because they don't
(17:15):
have the resources to do it.They're still able to get access to those
goods, and it's an important partof our mission. We also have a
building supply store that's located next toour primary thrist store that has an environmental
mission attached to it. We areable to reclaim a lot of items that
would normally end up in landfills beable to work with them to put them
in usable formats, whether that becutting boards that would normally be tossed into
(17:37):
a dumpster that we're now cutting intosizes that people might be able to use.
We retent and recondition, paint andresell it. Even taking windows out
of houses that might be being removed. People are able to come and buy
those things and be able to usethem either for their own home improvement project
or even We have a lot offolks that do art in the community that
(17:57):
buy those windows and create them.So there's a lot of cool things that
our thrift store operations bring to thetable as well that are extremely important part
of our mission. And the majorityof our families when they leave our shelter,
they don't have anything. So evenif you give them an apartment,
they've got to fill it. Alot of times they're filling it with items
out of our thrift store, andthat includes people coming from other agencies as
(18:18):
well that need the assistance. Andwhat are the addresses for the thirst stores?
Yeah, they're at one thousand andfive South High Street and one thousand
and one South High Street. Themain thrift stores at one thousand and five,
the Building Supply stores one thousand andone, and they're located next door
to each other, and they're rightacross the street from Rocking Air Hardware.
Are they open every day? Actually, the thrift store now is open every
(18:40):
day. We have less hours onSunday, but we are open part day
on Sunday and we are open therest of the week, beginning at eight
am and closing around five or fivethirty. Shannon Porter, executive director of
Mercy House, I thank you forstopping buy on business break. Noah Yoder,
the aftercare case manager for Mercy House, thank you as well. And
we want to thank Amanda Bonfim fromthe Great Community Give if you would let
(19:03):
we want to get the playground builtright. If you'd like to donate,
you go to Great Community give dotorg select Mercyhouse Now donations. I believe
you can start on April third andthat runs through April seventeenth, but you
can go to the website right nowand get a lot of information and dig
around so you're ready on April thirdto make that donation. We thank you
all so much, and let's raisetwo million dollars on April seventeenth for a
(19:27):
great community. Or I thank you, thanks so much for having us.
This has been Shenandoah Valley Business Break. If you have an idea for a
future show, reach us at thecontact tab at NewsRadio WKCY dot com.
Find all past episodes by searching businessBreak on the iHeartRadio app.
Shanandoa Valley. Business Break is apodcast about local business and community happenings and
and around the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia. I'm Chris Carmichael. I'm here with
Amanda Bonfam. She's with the GreatCommunity Give, which is just about a
month away, coming up on Aprilseventeenth. That's the third Wednesday in April,
when it's your seventh year. Yes, and so we're trying to raise
(00:23):
just a ton of money for allthe great community organizations in Harrisonburg and Rockham
County. Yes. So we arecalling on Harrisonburg and Rockingham greater community to
come out and show their love forthe participating nonprofits. And we're hoping to
raise two million again for those deservinglocal organizations. Now it's two million what
(00:44):
we raised last year. Yes,it was two million, five hundred and
forty five. We reached that twomillion dollar goal right in the last few
seconds of the GCG twenty twenty threeevent. And I don't think I've ever
been more stressed in my life.If you get close, that's enough,
right, Yes, of course,any amount raised is, you know,
amazing. We're so grateful and thankfuleach year that the community shows out their
(01:10):
support and they're excited about giving backto local causes, and yeah, we're
hoping to kind of repeat that thisyear, that level of excitement. But
something's different because it's the seventh year. So this year it's a little bit
different because the minimum donation is actuallychanged from ten dollars to seven dollars.
(01:33):
So in celebration of it being theseventh year, on the seventeenth, you
can give back to local causes forseven dollars or more. So that means
people can give to one organization forseven, two for fourteen, three for
twenty one and so on. Ilove it and it's really easy to give.
It is it's very easy to give. We try our best to make
it as intuitive as possible. Ifpeople are interested, they can go to
(01:56):
great Community give dot org and researchall the low causes that address all the
needs of our area and learn abouttheir stories and connect with those that mean
something to you and yeah, getready to give on April seventeenth. The
website is very easy to use.There's a shopping cart feature so you can
give to more than one organization atthe same time. So we try our
(02:21):
best to make it as easy aspossible to give. Yeah, I really
like the website great community give dotorg. You've got pictures from previous events,
you've got information about all the localcommunity organizations that you've teamed up with,
and really easy to give. Thatis it seven dollars a month or
just a seven dollars donation as theminimum? Seven dollars is the minimum,
(02:42):
So you can give seven dollars.I heck, that's that's what it costs
to get fast food now exactly,So you can more than that, give
seventy dollars. Right, give youa cup of coffee or whatever it is
that day, and you can giveseven dollars. And I promise each and
every gift means something really important tothose organizations. Every gift counts truly,
and one of those organizations is MercyHouse. Yes, and we're really honored
(03:06):
to have in the studio Shannon Porter, who's the executive director of Mercy House.
Also Noah Yoder, who is theaftercare case manager, and gentlemen,
it's good to see you, goodmorning. Thank you for having us.
Shannon. Why don't we start offby just that top look down on what
Mercy House is. Who do youhelp? How do you help them and
(03:27):
how can we help you well.Mercy House is a first of all,
a really remarkable organization. I'm veryblessed to have the opportunity to be a
part of it. It's a localgrassroots nonprofit that works on issues related to
helmelessness and housing in Harrisburg and RockinghamCounty. We have a at our core,
a family shelter that has been operatingsince our inception that helps take local
(03:50):
families that would otherwise potentially having tobe on the street, or living in
their car, or living in anothershelter environment that does not provide them quite
the support and consistency that our programdoes, maybe an open plan barracks type
type of shelter, whereas we actuallyprovide a apartment for families to be able
to spend time together and put theirlives back together. Our agency also is
(04:13):
a homeless services organization that does thingslike rapid rehousing, which is a process
of taking someone who's currently homeless andgetting them back into permanent housing. We
also have homelesss provintion services for thoseindividuals that might be in danger of losing
their housing and have no other options. We might be able to help find
a way to catch their rent backup and get them back on track.
We also have a lot of supportivecase management services that focus on a myriad
(04:38):
of issues that might impact people's abilityto sustain their housing. And that's where
Noah comes in. He's from oneof our outstanding case managers that works with
families once we get them back intohousing. So, Noah, how do
you get introduced to your clients?Are they being recommended? Are they reaching
out to you? Are you goingout and talking to other organizations to help?
(05:00):
Yeah, I think all of theabove. Honestly, there's a really
high demand for our services in thisarea. And what ends up happening is
we have what's called the Centralized HousingIntake Line that we're the lead agent on
and so we receive thousands of callsa month that we are processing and triaging
trying to fix whatever is going on, trying to address the issue that that
(05:24):
family or that individual is facing.So when I'm working with folks, it's,
like Shannon said, it's going tobe after we've moved them through our
main programs and into housing, andI'm working with them to make sure that
they have a good budget in place, that their children are being taken care
of, and that we're creating aplan to ensure that they don't have to
experience that homelessness ever again, thatthey don't have to go through that.
(05:46):
And so I'm working a lot onthe long term plan for these folks.
But for the Great Community to give, what we're really trying to focus on
is meeting the families where they're atwhen they come into our shelter. And
the coolest part about Mercy House isjust how much we care for each of
those families. We try to getto know them, try to figure out
(06:09):
who they are, what are thechallenges that they're facing, and then we
provide them with a sense of normalcy. And that's why we really want to
invest in our playground this year.It is a space that is really a
catalyst for community. These families canbreathe a sigh of relief knowing that they
can shut the door at night andbe safe and their kids can be playing
on a safe and secure and accessibleplayground. So that's why we're really excited
(06:31):
this year for the Great Community togive. It's so important. This isn't
going to be, you know,a cheap endeavor, though. We need
a lot of people to select MercyHouse and give more than seven dollars,
at least seven dollars. Sure,yeah, absolutely, you know, the
great community give is awesome because youcan go online and you can figure out
what speaks to you. And sowe are hoping that individuals in this community
(06:55):
can find purpose and a calling forour mission and find some thing in what
we're doing that speaks to them.And we would love the support because,
yes, like you say, playgroundsand infrastructure are expensive these days. Yes,
say, I can't imagine when you'retalking about individual apartments, and I
understand you guys do birthday parties forthe kids and a big Christmas party every
(07:16):
year, that's all. I mean, that's a lot of money, right,
it is. It is. Butwe you know, the community has
been so great to us over theyears, and we are so foreign to
be able to do the work thatwe do, and to be able to
do it at this high of alevel. It's taken. It's taken a
village to get to this point.And what we're looking for in the future
is to build a space that willbe that community for the families in our
(07:42):
in our neighborhood that are experiencing homelessness. This is Business break and we are
talking about the Great Community Give whichis coming up on April seventeenth. You
just point click and give at GreatCommunity Give dot org seventh anniversary. One
of the great organizations that you canhelp out the year is Mercy Houson.
We're speaking with Shannon Porter, theexecutive director, and Noah Yoda, the
(08:05):
aftercare case manager from Mercy Houson.Noah, you said that you get a
thousand applications a month. That didI hear that right? Our? Yeah,
let me back up on that.So our centralized housing intake which serves
the entire containment of care. Sowe're talking about Shenandoah Page, Augusta County,
Rockingham County. That hotline receives thousandsof calls. We serve forty five
(08:26):
families in our shelter every calendar year, and we typically have people who are
trioged on a less to get intoshelter. It's unfortunate that we have that
many people who are in need,and our means only allow us to help
a certain number of those. Benice to be able to have extra money
(08:46):
at the end and have an apartmentfor all all that are doing. That's
why It's so important that you helpout what the Great Community Give, because
not only Mercy House, there areone hundred and fifty seven organizations that are
helping here in Rockingham and the cityof Harrisonburg and the surrounding areas. And
for just seven dollars for a minimumbid at Great Community give dot org,
(09:11):
you can start to help those organizations. And I think the Mercy House is
just doing wonderful work. I don'tknow if people realize. I think homelessness
can really be a secret issue becauseyou're in your home, you don't see
at night when it's cold, theperson who needs a home, and not
because of you know, bad choicesor decisions. I mean that can just
(09:35):
be something as simple as you know, your housing disappeared. You were staying
with someone and they say I can'thave you stay here anymore, and you
don't you don't have the funds toget get back on your feet just yet.
Yeah. Absolutely, we you know, we serve any individual who is
experiencing homelessness and we try to getthem back into permanent housing. What's the
(09:56):
dynamic that's shifted in our community sincethe pan has been a lot of local
landlords have either had no other choiceto or have wanted to sell their properties
to property management companies, and thatadds a level of screening that weeds out
a lot of the folks that wework with. During the counter year from
twenty twenty two and twenty twenty three, I had three individual women who had
(10:18):
master's degrees on my caseload, nofault of their own that they lost their
housing. But if their apartment getssold and the landlord wants to, you
know, make some renovations and increasethe rent, that locks them out of
housing, and that creates instability thatcosts our community, and so we're actively
trying to combat that as well.Wow, I love the work that you
(10:39):
guys are doing, Shannon. Whatelse do we need to know about Mercy
House? Well, I just wantto kind of step in and also just
add that I think one of thebiggest issues that we're seeing in the community
right now is that our housing marketis changing. When I started at Mercy
House ten years ago, we wereable to place families into housing fairly quickly.
(11:00):
Are staying in our shelter longer,and it's a lot harder for us
to find suitable housing for people thatthey can afford the rental rates have gone
up significantly, particularly since the pandemic, and we've had a vacancy rate in
our community that's been less than twopercent for over a decade, so there's
not that many units out there.James Madison University has grown and there's a
(11:22):
greater demandents for housing, and alot of those students are leaving what we
consider traditional student housing and are nowgoing into arrangements where they're taking homes that
would have normally been multi family homesfor working people and now they're being rented
out by the bedroom to students.And we're seeing a shift in our market
that is really making it very toughon local people to be able to sustain
their housing. So it is broaderthan just Mercy House. This really is
(11:46):
an issue that I think is affectingthe fabric of our community and it's something
that if we don't address housing instabilityon a more systemic and broader level than
just even our organization, there's goingto be significant concerns for our community going
forward. As the executive director nexttwelve months, what's your biggest struggle.
I think continuing to advance our organization'smission by adapting to what is a quickly
(12:11):
changing scenario in our community as faras how we can deliver services to get
our families back into housing. Weare seriously as an organization considering getting more
directly involved in the development of housing, or securing more housing that we would
be under our ownership and actually rentcontrolling that housing in such a way that
would be affordable for people. Thereality is is that even though wages have
(12:33):
gone up in our community in thelast couple of years and kind of you
know, there's been a big pushto get everybody to fifteen dollars, but
the reality is is if you're asingle mother with a couple of kids,
fifteen dollars an hour and you're workingthirty to thirty five hours a week,
it's not enough to afford a twobedroom home in this community right now.
And that's a real concern. Thoseare families that you know, you would
(12:54):
not normally think of them as beingcandidates for homelessness. But the reality is
that we're a lot more people inthat circumstance. And that's really my concern
when I go to bed at nightand I think about where's mercy, how
is going to be in a year? Is what can we do to stay
ahead of that trend, and whatsort of solutions or what innovations can we
make in our model to be ableto do a better job of ensuring that
(13:15):
that doesn't happen. How can wehelp you get to that goal? I
think it starts with a community awarenessof housing and how important it is.
There are a lot of other factorsthat destabilize housing, and I want to
be clear about this. We couldbuild more housing and we're still going to
have a problem because it's it's complex, and there's also issues related to things
(13:35):
like transportation, childcare, sustainable employment, being able to address things like physical
and mental health. It has ahuge impact on our families. You know,
my prodecessor, Twilight Lee, whoused to be the director of the
agency, talked about it as beingthe power of one that one thing that
throws a family that is balanced andmoving forward out of balance and eventually causes
(13:58):
them their housing. And that couldbe a are breaking down, that could
be a child getting sick. Wesaw that during the pandemic, where a
lot of people's ability to be ableto come into work and make an income
was severely impacted. But the realityis for somebody in our community today.
They are either losing a job becausedo is they can't care for their child,
or the car went out and they'vejust had their last point at the
(14:22):
chicken processing plants that they're working atand have gotten fired, and now they
can't pay their rent. And thereality is is that these are people who
are already living paycheck to paycheck andnow they're facing probably one of the scariest
things I can imagine, which isbeing homeless, particularly if you have children.
When you describe all that, itsounds dark, it's dark. But
(14:43):
the light in all this is wehave Mercy House. Well, we're blessed
to be in that position. AndI will also tell you that we go
back to the great community. Giventhe number of organizations that they're serving.
We have so many great partners inthis community that are doing work in all
of those areas where we're not experts, whether that be childcare or an organization
(15:03):
like Way to Go, which isproviding transportation to working people, or you
know, organizations that are focusing onwhich is becoming a larger group of our
clients, the elderly organizations like Vpass. There's a lot of people now in
a cross section of a facing homelessnessthat are not just working families, but
it's up and down the spectrum.We're seeing a lot more people on fixed
(15:24):
incomes also facing homelessness, and that'sa concern and we can't do it all
alone. So we are grateful tothe fact that we have the resources and
the ability to assist roughly forty fiveto fifty families in shelter and another two
hundred to two hundred and fifty familiesto access housing. Generally is what we
do in a year, but it'sa bigger problem than that, and it
(15:46):
takes more organizations than just ours tomake it happen. You have a website
that we can go to to getmore information about Our website is the Mercyhouse
dot org. And Chris, I'dalso like to just take a moment and
highlight the good work that our Thriststores do in the community. A lot
of people in Harrison, Marya andRockingham County only know our organization through our
Thrist stores. They're located up onNorth High Street and South High Street.
(16:11):
We're going to change that. They'relocated on South High Street and they are
an essential part of our organization.They are a social enterprise that helps fund
our shelter. We don't receive anystate or federal dollars to actually support the
actual operations of our shelter. Butalso they have a real service mission attached
to them as well. Many ofthe employees that work at the store are
(16:32):
former clients of ours that have beenable to come into a supportive employment environment,
get a good living wage, andbe able to stabilize their lives,
and we're able to work with themto adjust their schedules in such a way
that they can take care of theirfamilies or deal with medical issues or whatever
it is that might be impacting theircircumstance. But also those stores have become
a really important resource for a lotof people who are survival shopping. There's
(16:55):
a lot of people that purchase theirkids clothes for school. There's a lot
of people who need the services thatwe are providing there. They're buying their
furniture, their mattresses, those sortsof things actually there at a price that
they can afford. We provide goodsin a way that people who are not
able to go down to the mallor even order something offline because they don't
(17:15):
have the resources to do it.They're still able to get access to those
goods, and it's an important partof our mission. We also have a
building supply store that's located next toour primary thrist store that has an environmental
mission attached to it. We areable to reclaim a lot of items that
would normally end up in landfills beable to work with them to put them
in usable formats, whether that becutting boards that would normally be tossed into
(17:37):
a dumpster that we're now cutting intosizes that people might be able to use.
We retent and recondition, paint andresell it. Even taking windows out
of houses that might be being removed. People are able to come and buy
those things and be able to usethem either for their own home improvement project
or even We have a lot offolks that do art in the community that
(17:57):
buy those windows and create them.So there's a lot of cool things that
our thrift store operations bring to thetable as well that are extremely important part
of our mission. And the majorityof our families when they leave our shelter,
they don't have anything. So evenif you give them an apartment,
they've got to fill it. Alot of times they're filling it with items
out of our thrift store, andthat includes people coming from other agencies as
(18:18):
well that need the assistance. Andwhat are the addresses for the thirst stores?
Yeah, they're at one thousand andfive South High Street and one thousand
and one South High Street. Themain thrift stores at one thousand and five,
the Building Supply stores one thousand andone, and they're located next door
to each other, and they're rightacross the street from Rocking Air Hardware.
Are they open every day? Actually, the thrift store now is open every
(18:40):
day. We have less hours onSunday, but we are open part day
on Sunday and we are open therest of the week, beginning at eight
am and closing around five or fivethirty. Shannon Porter, executive director of
Mercy House, I thank you forstopping buy on business break. Noah Yoder,
the aftercare case manager for Mercy House, thank you as well. And
we want to thank Amanda Bonfim fromthe Great Community Give if you would let
(19:03):
we want to get the playground builtright. If you'd like to donate,
you go to Great Community give dotorg select Mercyhouse Now donations. I believe
you can start on April third andthat runs through April seventeenth, but you
can go to the website right nowand get a lot of information and dig
around so you're ready on April thirdto make that donation. We thank you
all so much, and let's raisetwo million dollars on April seventeenth for a
(19:27):
great community. Or I thank you, thanks so much for having us.
This has been Shenandoah Valley Business Break. If you have an idea for a
future show, reach us at thecontact tab at NewsRadio WKCY dot com.
Find all past episodes by searching businessBreak on the iHeartRadio app.
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