Help the Hub Provide Hotel Vouchers

THANK YOU FOR YOUR SUPPORT!
To make a donation to The Hospitality Hub, go to
http://hospitalityhub.org/donate.

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The Hospitality Hub has been one of the organizations leading Covid response to protect Memphians experiencing homelessness. Since mid-March, we have partnered with Housing & Community Development (HCD), First Presbyterian Church, Metropolitan Inter-Faith Association (MIFA), Room At The Inn, and others to shelter 288 people. 

We're currently housing individuals and families at two different hotels in Memphis. We have staff stationed at each location and are working to maintain the safety and health of each person housed in hotels by frequently checking temperatures, symptoms and even securing Covid tests for those not feeling well. 

While the initial shock of the pandemic has passed, our community is now faced with the long-term economic and emotional effects that resulted from the necessary 'Safer at Home' orders. Each day, we meet another 4-6 families and individuals that have lost jobs and need emergency housing. Even after the 'Safer at Home' orders are lifted, we expect the economic impact of Covid to be devastating to Memphis' vulnerable populations. As we provide emergency housing during the Covid pandemic, we're also using our team's expertise to move people from hotels into permanent housing.

Initial hotel vouchers offered by the city have run out and we're now paying out of our organizational budget to cover the cost of housing people in hotel rooms each night. We're spending as much as $10,000 per day to house people in hotel rooms with staff on hand 24/7.

1. Raise the funds through donations and ioby's COVID-19 match
2. Receive the funds
3. Immediately use the funds to purchase hotel rooms for people experiencing homelessness

The Hospitality Hub leverages decades of combined staff experience to identify challenges faced by our homeless clients and works with them to implement solutions that best suit their needs. When we found out that one of the very few emergency shelters serving women would close down on March 16th, we rushed to implement a solution. Less than 24 hours later, we opened an emergency pop-up shelter for people displaced by the shelter closure while working to identify options for socially-distant housing. 

Since then, we have placed all those shelter guests in hotel rooms and have organized meals and health check-ins with each. But every day, more people come to us looking for help. We are raising money to cover the unexpected expense of housing hundreds of people in hotel rooms.