What do bus tokens and underwear have in common? Plenty. On Monday, Wednesday and Friday mornings each week Lazarus Caucus volunteers settle into their Resource Room routine.  Shelter guests have already signed up to meet with Lazarus and get the supplemental help they need to put their life together in 90 days or less as deemed necessary by the mandate of the Rapid Rehousing Initiative. 

The requests that come through the Resource Room range from clothing (yes, new underwear) to help with getting ID's but the number one need is for bus tokens.  Why tokens? Imagine that the entire contents of your life is able to fit in a backpack. The good news is that you are at the shelter. Food, a bed, shower and bathroom.  Now the bad news.  Imagine that you need to put your life together in 90 days or less! This includes finding a job, a place to live, getting medical care, visiting agencies and on and on. Without transportation or the ability to get around, you are limited. 

Bus tokens are  the item most requested from the Resource Room.  We get clothing donations to stock the clothing closet and volunteers to run the center, but we need the public to support the new clothing items and transportation needs of the men.  People are not one size fits all and clothing donations don't always match up size-wise with the guests - underwear is always new and shoes need to be purchased as donated shoes usually don't have much life left in them. Sometimes we need to purchase items for a particular demand. Lazarus Caucus focuses on A Hand Up, not Hand Out and makes every attempt to match needs with requests.

Help us meet these needs.