KALAMAZOO, MI -- Kalamazoo leaders advocating for affordable housing met with Rep. Fred Upton, R-St. Joseph, and U.S. Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson the downtown homeless shelter at Kalamazoo Gospel Ministries.
Pastor Michael Brown, president and CEO of the local organization, reached out to Upton’s office in February to work on bringing Carson to Kalamazoo, he said
Brown said he wanted Carson to get a better understanding about how restrictions on funding for faith-based organizations leave nonprofits stretching every dollar.
“I think he has an eagle-eye view of how things work,” Brown said of Carson. “I don’t think he’s been on the ground yet.”
Kalamazoo Gospel Ministries received $400,000 in Paycheck Protection Program money that was used to pay staff, Brown said. The money helped retain 82 jobs, according to U.S. Department of the Treasury data.
In response to Brown’s push for funding, Carson pointed to HUD’s Center for Faith and Opportunity Initiative. He praised the work faith-based nonprofits have been doing to deal with the housing crisis, saying that it was that community who led the way with outreach.
“The government came along and just grew and grew and kind of displaced the community in that important mission,” Carson said. “If we’re going to get rid of homelessness it’s going to be the faith-based community that does it, with support from the government.”
A description of HUD’s Equal Treatment and Faith Based and Community Initiative on the department’s website states that organizations will not be given special treatment or discriminated against based on religion. It outlines that all grant recipients would be subject to the same level of scrutiny when awarded government dollars.
The site does stipulate that the beneficiaries of a HUD-funded service cannot be required to participate in religious activities and that HUD dollars cannot pay for inherently religious activities, such as worship, religious instruction or proselytizing, according to the HUD website.
Critics have raised questions and pushed back on President Donald Trump’s push to make religious freedom a top priority of domestic and international policy, as he said in his State of the Union address. Organizations like the ACLU fear that religious freedom guidelines could open the door to discrimination against the LGBTQ community under the guise of religious beliefs.
Carson praised the Trump administration for “unapologetically championing religious freedom.”
Those present at the round table focused less on the national conversation and more on the local need for Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) funds, as authorized by the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES Act).
Kalamazoo’s Housing Resource Inc. Director Michelle Davis told Carson and Upton that while the stimulus money granted to HRI during the pandemic was appreciated, they were still waiting to receive that funding.
She called on the congressman and the secretary to help expedite those funds since HRI is currently fronting $400,000, she said.
“We projected for that and used all the tools we have,” Davis said. “Frankly, we drew another line of credit to meet the needs like getting rental assistance out to folks so that we don’t have to tell them ‘no’ while we’re waiting on those funds.”
In the midst of the pandemic, 170 people stayed in a Kalamazoo-area hotel intended to ensure social distancing options for families who would otherwise stay in local homeless shelters, Kalamazoo County Health Officer Jim Rutherford said.
The funding fronted by United Way that operated the coronavirus hotel ended at the end of June. Some of those families have found permanent housing with help from Housing Resources Inc, Brown said.
Still, Kalamazoo Gospel Ministries is housing about 84% of Kalamazoo’s homeless population. It’s time for the nonprofit to be funded for the work its doing, Brown said.
“We can’t shoulder this burden alone,” he said. “This is a community effort.”
Construction will begin for the $10 million expansion for a women and children shelter at the organization. The previous building has been vacated and will be demolished within the next few weeks. This has put the shelter in a tight squeeze for space throughout the pandemic, Brown said.
“Our motto has already been not to turn anyone away but that is going to be harder and harder during construction,” he said.
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