Empty Stocking Fund: Mercy’s Gate
Mercy’s Gate works to keep the working poor in Colorado Springs from becoming homeless, but that task has become much more difficult in the past few years.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, two of the four local agencies that provided similar services to financially struggling individuals and families shut down, and surging inflation in the past year has made living paycheck to paycheck even more difficult, said Jason Dilger, Mercy’s Gate executive director. The nonprofit provides rent and mortgage assistance, help with medical needs and prescriptions, clothing vouchers, a food pantry, utility bill assistance, career help and referrals to educational programs.
The shutdown of Ecumenical Social Ministries and Reach Pikes Peak, which provided emergency financial help to individuals and families living central and southeastern Colorado Springs, “certainly put a burden on us. The pandemic accelerated difficulties of the working poor living paycheck to paycheck,” Dilger said. “Add to that inflation, that has made the cost of almost everything higher – a livable wage in Colorado Springs is now up to $19.25 an hour.”
Dilger said the persons who seek help from Mercy’s Gate fall short of earning a livable wage by about $1,000 a month, leaving them on the edge of homelessness and seeking help from the agency for shelter, food, utilities, medical and other expenses. Mercy’s Gate provided services last year that helped more than 28,000 people it calls neighbors, since they are fellow residents of El Paso County, up from 15,700 during the previous year.
“We are getting more and more reports from neighbors who have moved here in the last 24 months and can’t make it. They have jobs but they can’t keep up with inflation and the cost of living. This is a crisis. We want to be able to catch people before they go off the cliff,” Dilger said. “We are keeping them in their home in a stable environment. Homelessness is the cliff. Every year I’ve been here (since 2016), the number of people we have served has grown.”
Most of those helped by Mercy’s Gate are those who are employed but earn less than twice the poverty level, which is defined by the U.S. Census Bureau as an annual income of $27,750 for a family of four. That means a family of four with an income of less than $55,500 would meet Dilger’s definition of working poor, which he said includes about 40% of the population living in the Colorado Springs area. Nearly 10% of the county’s residents are below the poverty level.
A typical Mercy’s Gate client is Diana, who lost her job and fell behind on her utility bill when she couldn’t find another job, so she sought help from the agency. The organization helped her with the utility bill and provided medical and clothing assistance, and food from its pantry.
While Mercy’s Gate has an annual budget of nearly $2 million, Dilger said the organization turns away about three-fourths of all who apply for help for lack of resources. That’s why support from the Empty Stocking Fund is critical to the nonprofit – those funds mostly are used to provide financial help with housing, medical and food – the three biggest programs Mercy’s Gate operates since financial help for utilities bills comes through Colorado Springs Utilities’ Project COPE.
“We are consistently in the top three agencies that get referrals from the 211 hotline,” which is operated by the United Way of the Pikes Peak Region and providers referrals for food, housing, utilities, home repair, emergency shelter, clothing, transportation and many other services. “It is getting to be impossible to live here at the low end of the labor market because of the high cost of housing and rapidly increasing cost of living.”
To meet the growing need for housing assistance, Mercy’s Gate will expand the hours such help is available from Monday evenings to every day the nonprofit is open after Thanksgiving, Dilger said. The organization also is expanding its Holiday Meal Kit giveaway – which includes an uncooked turkey and all side dishes and other ingredients for a holiday meal – to every day the nonprofit is open from mid-November through year’s end.
The organization was started as Northern Churches Care in 1982 by five area churches to offer a food pantry. The agency changed its name in 2012 to Mercy’s Gate and has grown to 50 churches and has expanded to offer housing, medical, clothing and other assistance programs.
Empty Stocking Fund benefits 20 health and human service agencies in the Pikes Peak region who serve over 350,000 neighbors in need from birth to end of life. One donation. 20 agencies. A whole community served.
Give now at EmptyStockingFundCO.org, or call 719-476-1673 to make a credit card or stock donation. Make checks payable to Empty Stocking Fund and mail to P.O. Box 910942, Denver, CO 80291-0942.
Mercy’s Gate works to keep the working poor in Colorado Springs from becoming homeless, but that task has become much more difficult in the past few years.