LAS VEGAS, Nev. (FOX5) – Helping the homeless in our community can be a challenge but that’s especially true this time of year.
Now one local nonprofit that’s helped many may have to turn people away if it doesn’t get much-needed funding.
“Taking people off the cold streets and serving them a warm meal for Thanksgiving,” said Merideth Spriggs, founder of Caridad Charity.
To say it’s changing lives is an understatement.
Especially for Nick Owens, who’s situation looked a lot different just a few days ago – before landing at The Hebron apartment complex, associated with Caridad Charity.
“I was homeless. Ain’t nobody ever took a chance on me,” Owens said. Owens is happy to tell Caridad’s founder and Chief Kindness Officer, Merideth Spriggs how she helped him turn things around.
“You did something for me that ain’t nobody’s ever done for me. The purest thing I ever met in this life. Thank you!”
But Owens isn’t the only person Spriggs has helped change course.
It literally happened as the FOX5 crew walked the streets, looking for people who might need the nonprofit’s help.
“I’ve been on him to get sober, and he was about to buy drugs off that other guy, and so I just had a heart to heart about how he needs to get sober, so we spooked him,” Spriggs said.
Caridad works as a resource for homeless people. The goal is to help them find jobs. Some residents are able to then pay rent and live on the property at The Hebron. That’s where they’ll be getting a warm Thanksgiving meal.
It’s something that isn’t lost on Spriggs. “Funds have been really tight. Our grant funding ends at the end of this month for some of our programming, so we quite literally could not afford Thanksgiving this year,” Spriggs said. “But we have been very blessed, and the community has reached out to us.”
That outreach, led to the nonprofit doing something the founder says it’s never done before! “We actually had to turn off our request online for volunteers and food because we have more than we need and we’ve been sharing the love with our neighbors.”
The outpouring of support hits different for Spriggs, who was once homeless herself. “I had been working odd jobs, living out of my car and lost everything, and realized if it could happen to me it could happen to anybody.”
Right now, the greatest need for the nonprofit is furniture. Caridad leaders are asking families to sponsor a room for the holidays and donate furniture so more rooms can be rented out.
As for the grant money, the founder says she’s hopeful they’ll get the funds they need.
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