501 c3 Fund Shortage Threatens to Close L.A. Homeless Center

A massive shortfall in funds threatens to close a center for homeless women and children, announced the nation’s largest rescue mission on Monday.

The Hope Gardens Family Center, operated by Union Rescue Mission in Los Angeles, needs $2.8 million by June 30 or it will be shut down. The resort-like family center currently houses 34 mothers, 74 children and 23 senior women. All of the residents, including children, were formerly homeless.

“You can’t cry wolf every time there is a problem, but this is a serious challenge,” said the Rev. Andy Bales, CEO of Union Rescue Mission, to The Christian Post on Tuesday. “We are in danger of closing something down that we fought so hard to open and gave everything that we had, and that I had, to get it open.”

The Hope Gardens Family Center opened in 2006, first housing senior women and then in 2007 taking in single mothers and their children.

In his 32 years of ministry and nonprofit work, Bales said he has never seen the financial crunch URM is currently facing. Donations have dropped 21 percent while demand for URM services has increased 45 percent over the past two years.