#DirectHOPENation has been busy this season!

We have so much to share with you about how your support, time and donations are reducing homelessness in Houston and enriching and relaunching the lives of our indigent community members!

We’ll start with today!

Several of our teen volunteers spent the day driving around Houston picking up, loading and unloading furniture and living necessities for our friend Ronnie, who recently received keys to a new, empty apartment.

Ronnie is a very sweet man who became homeless due to unforeseen circumstances. He is not chronically homeless and, fortunately, was homeless for a very short time prior to reaching out to us, but he is still starting over.

When we heard Ronnie’s story, we called on our AMAZING realtor and interior decorating sponsor, Shannon Beasley Thompson, (www.shannonbthompson.com) and within only a few days, her clients donated a bed, new dishes, a couch, a dining room set, a coffee table, an entertainment center and several other items to start transforming his four walls into a home.

Ronnie still needs several items to pull his place together. If you would like to donate gently used or new items or make a donation so that we can purchase these items for him, please let us know in a comment box below.

Here's the list of what we still need:

Headboard (Queen) Queen coverlet & bedskirt (blue) Queen sheets and pillow cases (blue) Bed pillows (new) Bed Side table Dresser Pots/pans Spatulas/cooling utensils Baking pans Broom/Mop/Bucket Extra Cleaning supplies Towels (gray blue? Or blue) Bath mat (same color as towel) Rug for living room chair for living room LIving room side table Cutlery (new) Lamp Pictures

Before and after pictures of the pad to follow!

Kendra

Last week at Sunday Brunch, we couldn’t help noticing a young lady who was calmly balancing, for herself and her 5 children ages 3-9, plates of food, bags of non-perishables and a number of other items that we were distributing.

Upon approaching this lovely family, one our volunteers learned that Kendra, a single mother, and her 5 children. (Keniya, Anthony, Charlie, Denver and Peyton) were being evicted from Star of Hope since she had been late to pick up her 2 youngest from daycare 3 times.

The bad news is that she applied for housing at the Star of Hope Family Center, but won’t be able to secure housing until December 27.

The great news is that WITH THE KIND DONATIONS OF OUR DONORS, Direct HOPE was able to fund the cost of providing a hotel room for her and her 5 children until her move in date — and the hotel is close to her 3 oldest children’s school which worked out very nicely.

We cannot thank you enough for giving the gift of roof over our adopted families head this holiday season.

If you would like to donate new toys to this family so that have a little something to open on Christmas, please let us know in a comment box. You can also make a donation to our PayPal account. Our email address is directhope15@gmail.com.

Kendra has 4 girls ages: 2,4, 5, 9 and 1 boy age 7

Thank you for all that you do to support our organization and, ultimately, our community members in need.

#directhopenation #compassionisaverb #helpingothers

Our Annual Bike Drive was a success!

We are pleased to report that our VERY GENEROUS donors produced more than 150 children’s bikes in only 14 days!

We are pleased to report that our VERY GENEROUS donors produced more than 150 children’s bikes in only 14 days in support of a local prison mission that receives preowned bicycles that prisoners refurbish and then the mission delivers to children whose parents are incarcerated. It’s a wonderful program with which Direct HOPE is proud to be a partner.

A special thanks to Jerry Langlois for trucking all over town picking up bikes and delivering them to BMP - Brand Management Professionals and to our donors who financed the Uhaul rental to make this happen!

Look for a post from us in late November every year if you’d like to participate.