By: Laura Nunez
Posted: Nov 23, 2020 11:00PM CST
Denton - Our Daily bread and the Monsignor King outreach center are merging as The Junction to provide the Denton homeless community with a warm meal and shelter all in one place.
According to the Denton County Homelessness 2020 Point in time count, about 258 people experienced homelessness and 132 of those people were unsheltered.
Our Daily Bread Assistant Director Alva Santos says the goal of the junction is to combine the day shelter with the night shelter in one location to make it easier for clients.
“We're running also our night, Monsignor King shelter for three days out of the week and following the guidelines for COVID so, there's not as many guests allowed in there as before,” said Santos.
Currently, Our Daily Bread and Monsignor king have not consolidated just yet, but they expect to be up and running sometime after thanksgiving.
Homeless community member Bethany says she is thankful for all the services the nonprofit provides.
“I'm just thankful that you know that they have that outreach program, especially in the city because not every city has the provisions or funds to do so to help others,” said Bethany.
Bethany said her ID was stolen when she experienced car trouble in another town and now has to wait until she can make an appointment to get a new license.
Despite this, she still advocates for kindness and believes people should be learning every day.
“Hope is, you know, just a day away, you can turn it around, have hope,” said Bethany. “I've been at the bottom and crawled my way out of many pits in my life so you can do it.”
Homeless traveler Shane Learner says he currently lives in the woods and relies on a couple of local resources like ODB to get food and other necessities.
Learner says he’s lived in “all but ten states” and planned to be an event fire performer to earn a living before the pandemic hit.
“But COVID came through and canceled all of my events at the same time that I lost my ID and couldn’t get other work, and so that’s kind of how I ended up where I am,” said Learner.
Santos says ODB case managers do a lot to help clients determine what needs each client has and how they can help.
“You never know what is going to arise when you sit and talk to somebody, but it might be something as simple as their medication,” said Santos. “Maybe they are just stuck paying on some medical medication for one month or, or what have you, but we try to figure out what is that scenario so we can get them out of it.”
For more information on how you can volunteer be sure to visit the Our Daily Bread Website.
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