You can use PayPal or the credit card of your choice to donate to the ongoing work of the homeless shelter developed by the Haywood Coalition.
Use the “Chip In” widget at the bottom of the right-hand column.
Donations and gifts to this work can be made through the Open Door Ministries.
The Open Door is in downtown Waynesville in Frog Level-
Office Hours – Monday-Friday 8am-4pm
Phone: 452-3846
There were numerous newspaper stories about the homeless shelter and the Coalition in The Mountaineer and The Smoky Mountain News since November 2008.
The online archives at The Mountaineer is not showing those articles, but there are some from the Smoky Mountain News.
Churches pool to offer refuge for homeless in Sylva, Waynesville
If you have links to other news articles, etc. please send them to the webmaster.
Take a look at this news segment that was done in December by WLOS-TV on the Homeless Shelter:
First Homeless Shelter Opens in Haywood County
Haywood County opens it’s first-ever overnight homeless shelter thanks to the efforts of some local church groups.
They call themselves the Haywood Coalition, a group of charities, non-profits, and churches from all over the county. The group held it’s first meeting three weeks ago and recognized the overwhelming need for an overnight shelter.
“With our economy there are more and more, not just permanent homelses, but temporary homeless. And we have got to start addressing this need and I just think its time for Haywood County to have its own homeless shelter,” says Pastor Nick Honerkamp of New Covenant Church.
Volunteers from different churches will take turns manning the shelter along with a security guard that will be there at all times.
They also want to make it easy for the homeless to get there. Vans will be sent to the Community Kitchen in Canton and The Open Door in Waynesville to take people to the shelter.
The group has the funding and the staff to keep the shelter open every night from now through March.
(video no longer online)
There are a couple of documents that are available online for the Haywood Coalition. These documents can be downloaded for your information:
Guidelines for Staff of the Homeless Shelter
Listing of Emergency Food Providers in Haywood County
(If there are other documents that need to be included, please send them to the webmaster- Michael Rich)
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This video was produced by Russ McLamb of Hellfire Ministries. You can download a copy to use on your computer at:
Many apologies to all the folks who have contributed to the work of the Haywood-Coalition.
Some scripts hosted by the company I have worked with for over five years inadvertently erased all the information in the databse where all of the information on this site was housed back on April 3rd. (Needless to say, I am very disappointed with that company and they have received words of wrath and complaint for things that were out of my control.)
Their back up system was inadequate to capture that data (I have asked for them to reconsider their methodogies to protect all of their customers in the future), and so we are back to a fresh website.
If you were a registered member, that information is gone (though it was not an important part of the website). All of the articles and postings will be recreated from emails and correspondence that were sent my way the past 4 months. I will be working on it over the next few work days, and it should be back in working order by this time next week.
If you do not see important information on the site by Wednesday, April 15th, send me an email and I will get it up as soon as possible.
Again, my apologies, and I look forward to working with you as we work toward serving the needy of Haywood County in the coming year!
Michael Rich
