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Mission sees its donations dwindle

Suncoast Haven of Rest may have to close if finances don't improve. That may have wide ramifications, some say.

By ANNE LINDBERG
Published February 13, 2005

PINELLAS PARK - About 50 men and women with tired, drawn faces sit at crowded tables listening to the word of the Lord.

It's a nightly tableau for the homeless and hungry at Suncoast Haven of Rest, where the price of a meal is simply to listen to God's word.

It is a scene that is likely to end soon. Haven of Rest is suffering severe financial distress and could be forced to shut down.

"If we don't get help, we're closing the doors," said Lionel Cabral, executive director. "We're on the edge."

Closing Haven of Rest would have a ripple effect across Pinellas County. While seemingly small, the mission serves people from all over the county. Those people would have to go elsewhere if the doors shut.

"I think it would be really a devastating impact," said Bruce Wright, associate pastor of Solid Rock Church in Lealman. Solid Rock serves the homeless and working poor from its church on 28th Street N. Solid Rock often receives bread and food deliveries from Haven of Rest.

"They're filling in a lot of gaps," Wright said of Haven of Rest. "I can't really begin to explain the impact. It's not just Pinellas Park they impact. They impact south county really."

Cabral said Solid Rock's financial woes began after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks when people sent money up North. Donations never seemed to get back to normal after that.

Things became worse last year after four hurricanes devastated parts of Florida. Donations went to help those folks.

Then came the tsunami, and donations began flooding out of the country.

In the meantime, Cabral said, the needy at home were ignored and forgotten.

Wright said Solid Rock also noticed a decline in donations that began with the 9/11 attacks. Like Haven of Rest, Solid Rock's donations have remained low.

"We're having struggles," Wright said. "It is increasingly becoming difficult to have the funds to do what we really need to do."

At the same time, both said the number of poor and homeless has increased.

"This economy is a lot worse than the people in power want to admit," Wright said. "We see it on the ground."

Haven of Rest has been more severely affected by the decline in donations. The mission is so close to the edge that the lights were cut off Tuesday because the $576 electric bill had not been paid.

"Rev. Lionel," as Cabral is known among the homeless and poor, managed to talk someone into donating enough money to pay the bill, but another $600 was due Friday. The mission did not have the money as of late Thursday.

That's just the tip of the iceberg. The Haven of Rest has a budget of about $121,000 a year.

Of that, about $6,000 goes to the mission's truck and gas. The group sends the truck daily to pick up bread and other foodstuffs that businesses as varied as Country Hearth, Kentucky Fried Chicken, Pizza Hut and Kash n' Karry donate. The truck is also used to take bread and food to more than 125 other charitable organizations in Pinellas County.

Another $7,200 or so goes to pay the water bill each year. The mission has showers where the homeless can clean up before going to job interviews.

Then, there's the thousands of dollars a year in paper products - plates, napkins, toilet tissue. Each meal costs the Haven of Rest about 34 cents in paper products. At 28,000 meals a year, the figures add up. Insurance costs another $8,000 or so a year. The electric bill goes as high as about $900 a month to about $550, depending on the weather. Much of the high cost is created by the freezers and refrigerators necessary to keep food from spoiling.

About $3,600 a year goes to a mortgage payment, which is now two months in arrears.

There's also Cabral's salary of $21,000 a year, but he has not been paid in more than a month. Right now, Cabral said, he's searching for another job, one that will pay the bills and ensure that he does not himself become homeless. But the job must leave him time to continue acting as executive director at Haven of Rest, he said.

Cabral said he can count on regular donations to make up most, about $85,000, of the budget. That that means the Haven runs a shortfall of about $36,000 a year. Donations come from businesses, private individuals or other charitable groups. Haven of Rest accepts no government money. The mission sold some land behind the mission at 5625 Park Blvd. a couple of years ago and used the money to make up the shortfall. That has been used up.

With that budget, Haven of Rest managed to give away about $1.09-million worth of food, including 500,000 loaves of bread.

The mission has more than 3,700 families signed up for its food bank program, which serves mostly single mothers. Those folks are allowed to get one box of food per month at the most. The children are given a toy.

The mission serves breakfast and dinner. The 4:30 a.m. breakfast generally attracts 30-40 people each day. The evening meal generally feeds anywhere from 60 to 70 a night. Sometimes there are fewer if, like Thursday, people have to seek shelter from the cold.

It also supplies clean clothes so folks will look good when they go for job interviews. The mission also serves as a mail drop and takes phone messages for its clientele.

Some people manage to get back on their feet, Cabral said, but that does not reduce the flow.

"Always there's more coming in the other end, more poor people," Cabral said.

[Last modified February 13, 2005, 01:07:16]