Through your generous gifts to the Rector's Special Assistance Fund administered by me and the TRUE Fund administered by Bruce Hagemann, we are able to extend the embrace of St Paul's to the wider community of Key West and the Lower Keys. Thus far in calendar year 2023, you have collectively contributed $8,362.00 to the TRUE Fund and $13,818.00 to the Rector's Special Assistance Fund. As of this week have exhausted those funds.
Almost every week one or more individuals or families come to the St Paul's campus looking for assistance. This week five different individuals and families have come.
I talked with all of them for some time and prayed with those who were open to it or who requested it. I was able to assist one of those individuals with making past-due public housing rent and utilities payments. I had to turn the other four individuals and families down on their requests for financial assistance. Why was that? Were their requests inappropriate? No, in fact, every request was legitimate. But there wasn't money on hand to assist them all.
What did they ask for? Luís, a man who has been in Key West for more than 30 years, needed help with his electric bill. His August bill was past due and his September bill due. Luís is now on dialysis. He is still working full time at one job; his wife is working, too. But he can no longer work the other two outdoor jobs he also did before beginning dialysis. I reached out to Bruce Hagemann to see if TRUE could meet this need. There wasn't enough in the TRUE Fund for these utility bills either.
A single mom with a toddler and a babe in arms and another baby on the way rang the bell on Tuesday. Her partner left her in the lurch and is giving her no money for the care of their children. She just got a job, but she awoke Tuesday morning to find her electricity had been cut off. I advised her to fill out all the paperwork at Catholic Charities so that when they are able to administer a new grant just received to assist households with young children with rent she will already be in their system.
A man who has visited many times since I began my tenure needed $200.00 to get his 41-foot boat, on which he lives, off the reef where it wound up in the bad weather associated with Idalia. On most of this fellow's visits he just wants to talk with me or use my phone to make a call. We talked today, and I let him use my phone. There were no funds available to help him with his boat situation.
A couple who arrived in Key West from Texas just before Idalia have visited campus multiple times last week and this. Today they asked for assistance with bus fare back home. As often happens, it was much more expensive to ride out the storm than they anticipated. The money they thought would help them get started here was consumed by hotel costs. Generally, if folks wind up here without shelter, the best intervention is to help them get a bus back to where they have some kind of support network. I couldn't buy them bus fare, and KOTS is full indefinitely.
Is this year particularly difficult? In a word, yes. As the most recent demographic data for the Keys through the United Way describes (see https://www.uwof.org/alicer and https://www.keysunitedway.org/ and ), food costs per meal in Monroe County are the highest anywhere in Florida. Monroe County currently ranks fifth among all counties in the US in terms of income inequality. Our affordable housing crisis is worse overall even though there are some new units of workforce housing on Stock Island. Utilities costs have increased significantly in 2023. Many of our neighbors are working hard and still struggling. They are ALICE folks: Asset Limited, Income Constrained, Employed. They live paycheck to paycheck.
The total amount needed to meet the financial requests for the four individuals and families I turned down this week was $1,475.00. If the Spirit leads you to help replenish the Rector's Special Assistance Fund and the TRUE Fund, you may give directly to these online at stpaulskeywest.org/give using the pull-down menu. The money will be in the respective accounts within 24 hours. You can also mail a check to St Paul's or place one in the offering plate on Sunday.
Bruce and I are honored to represent you through the use of these funds to assist folks in need. Thank you for your generous contributions to both funds through the years. They have helped dozens and dozens of individuals and families, demonstrating the love of Christ through practical acts of service and support.
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