HOPE Hospitality and Warming Center, Inc.

Description

HOPE was founded in 1998 as a community response to a homeless person freezing to death in downtown Pontiac, Michigan. The need for HOPE was great.

In the mid-1990s, a long-standing shelter closed its doors and another shifted its focus to long-term addiction services. Since its founding, HOPE has provided seasonal emergency shelter for individuals struggling with homelessness in northern Oakland County, turning no person away. Beginning at the Baldwin Center, HOPE operated during the coldest 3 months of the year and guests were given two blankets, a pillow and a place to sleep on the floor.

In 2010, HOPE purchased a foreclosed building across the street- 249 Baldwin. With the help of more than half-a-million dollars of volunteer labor and in-kind donations, the space has been transformed into an effective resource for those experiencing homelessness.