Five years ago this month, the COVID-19 pandemic dramatically changed how Lighthouse provides services to the most vulnerable members of our community. Faced with the pandemic and a surge in the demand for emergency food and shelter, we called upon you, our community of supporters and friends, for help – and you rose to the occasion.

Many wonderful volunteers came forward. We worked together wearing masks and other protective gear to sort and pack food and get it to those who needed it most. Almost overnight, we went from serving 500 to 5,000 households each week. Five years later – there’s still an increased need even though COVID-19 funding and support has ended.

COVID also impacted the way we provide emergency shelter. Lighthouse changed our model from the SOS rotating emergency shelter at local churches and synagogues to a hotel model, until we ultimately shifted our approach and opened our family shelter building in Pontiac. We went from serving approximately 30 people each night to 150 – and the need still remains five times greater today despite more limited resources and shelter space.

The pandemic exposed the tenuous safety net in our country and strengthened Lighthouse’s resolve to bring a bold vision to life that will alleviate poverty for more people in Oakland County.

We continue to move forward with our Lighting the Way Campaign to expand our Pontiac campus and create a comprehensive center for Oakland County residents in need. With national homeless numbers at the highest levels in history, and families with children impacted the most, our plan includes permanently increasing our family shelter capacity from 70 to 160 beds — with individual apartments for each household, so families can chart a new future and achieve stable housing. We’re also building a Social Supermarket, Economic Opportunity Center, Cafe, Community Development Capital Fund, Runaway and Homeless Youth program facilities, and more.

In addition, we’ll be breaking ground on several major affordable housing projects this year to help address the affordable housing crisis. You help to make this all possible.

At a time when funding and policy changes are creating a great deal of uncertainty for nonprofit organizations like ours – we are more grateful than ever to our community of supporters who step up and show up no matter the challenge. Please consider supporting Lighthouse as we work to meet our community’s needs now and in the future.

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