Homelessness is a chronic problem – for individuals and communities. It can be complicated, time intensive and challenging.

Greater Lansing is no exception, yet our community has a strong network of advocates who work together to maximize help for the homeless.

Volunteers of America-Michigan (VOA-MI) is an organization that has served the needs of Lansing’s homeless for 120 years or more. It has a health clinic, dental clinic, legal offices and a veterans’ shelter, in addition to 60 beds and daily meals.

The City Rescue Mission, with two locations in Greater Lansing, provides shelter for more than 150 people each night, more than half of them women and children.

Homeless Angels is a street-based outreach program in the news lately over the possible closing of the Magnuson Hotel just of I-96 on South Pennsylvania Avenue. For a small fee, community members have sponsored over 2,000 “safe sleeps” since 2014 for families at the hotel.

Change is coming for all three organizations by the end of September.

VOA-MI will be shuffling resources and providing fewer beds in the men’s dormitory and stop serving breakfast and dinner on weekends, to better address the needs of homeless veterans, women and children.

Simultaneously, the City Rescue Mission will add beds to their men’s cooperative and men’s supportive dorms that require job search consistency and volunteerism.

And Homeless Angels is in a holding pattern, waiting to hear if they will be evicted from the hotel due to the owner’s back taxes. The fate of the hotel may be decided in a Sept. 13 hearing where an emergency complaint from the city will be considered.

In the meantime, Lansing officials will work with area agencies to develop a plan for the more than 90 people currently living at the hotel.

These agencies are a powerful reminder that strategic collaboration – extending resources and multiplying assistance to make a greater impact – can change lives in a meaningful way.

Working cooperatively leads to greater success, and this network of advocates make a difference every day to help Lansing’s homeless, and the chronic problem of homelessness.

State Journal (Lansing)