Montgomery County Homeless Coalition

On 5/30/2017, representatives of the Montgomery County Homeless Coalition spoke to the Magnolia Rotary Club membership about the homeless situation in Montgomery County, Texas and specifically explained a little about their organization. Pictured above from left to right are Renee Cavazos and Nancy Heintz.

 

Nancy Heintz told everyone that she grew up in Conroe Texas and has always been interested in helping the homeless. She is currently on the Board of the Montgomery County Homeless Coalition (MCHC) and has been there for 6 years. Nancy told everyone that the mission of the MCHC is to provide research, education and informational activities to increase collaboration amoung agencies and organizations as well as public awareness of the issues and challenges of homelessness in Montgomery County, Texas.

 

In March of 2016, the MCHC moved its Continuum of Care membership from Austin with Balance of State to The Way Home CoC that serves Harris, Fort Bend and now Montgomery County. Nancy told the group that she was hired in August of 2016 to work as the Project Manager for Montgomery County. Nancy further eplained that MCHC currently has 23 agencies and churches and 7 individuals on their membership roll.

 

Nancy explined that their current project is called "Keep Us Fed" and is a volunteer based organization whose mission is to share healthy nutrition with our hungry neighbors while keeping surplus food out of the waste system. The MCHC received this project as a result of their 2014 LMC Class in June of 2015. In 2016, 108,685 pounds of food and 12,642 gallons of beverages were recovered. All of the recovery was done with 18 volunteers who make deliveries every day of the week to one of their recipient agencies which include food pantries and shelters/housing.

 

Nancy further explained that they have a new project under development called the "E3 Iniative". The "E3 Center" will be the hub of the E3 Initaitive and will be located in what was the former Montgomery County Food Bank, at the corner of E and 2nd Ave., across from the Salvation Army Shelter in Conroe, Texas. It will house a variety of organizations which will offer case management, job readiness, literacy, etc. The Lone Star College (LSC) is developing a new "Workforce Culinary Certification" course that will only be taught in the MCHC culinary teaching kitchen in the new "E3 Center". Community Development Block Grant funds are paying for the building remodel which is expected to be completed in late summer of 2017 with a hope of being operational by the end of 2017.

 

Nancy then introduced Renee Cavazos who is The Way Home Project (another MCHC projet) Fund Coordinator.

 

Renee told everyone that The Way Home Project has a goal of placing homeless veterans and families in acceptable living accomodations within 30 days of the recipient being accepted into the program. The program focuses on our veterans who have fallen on hard times. She told everyone that in the last year, The Way Home Project has reduced the homelessness of our veterans by 16%. 

 

Renee further explained that the group helps vererans receiving a home to get furniture and cooking/eating utinsels and basic electricity since it most cases they do not have any of these things and do not yet have the money to get them. The Way Home Project also works to help get these veterans a job that will help them get on the road to financial recovery.

 

Prior to the above presentation, Hanna Avila, an 11 year old who will be in the 6th grade next year in the MISD System talked about herself. Hanna explained that she wants to be a veternary doctor as well as a Rotarian one day. Hanna told everyone about herself including the facts that she is an all "A" student, a UIL participant, has entered her artwork in the Rodeo Art Show the last five years, won a T-Shirt Art Contest for 5th grade shirts, won a poster contest for veterans, and won an essay contest for Veterans Day last year. Hanna showed the group a short slide show having photos of many of the events she has been involved in. 

 

Hanna explained that she is in the Veternary Science Program within the Magnolia 4H Club and is currently voluntering at the Shady Brook Animal Hospital. A phot of Hanna is shown below: