The main purpose of Samaritan House is to provide emergency support to families in a crisis. The charity typically provides assistance with more basic needs, but can sometimes provide more extensive assistance if necessary.
Free food is for people who can’t afford to buy food. The food in the pantry orders is either donated by people or bought with donated money. The orders are put together so that there is enough food for every person in the household to have three meals a day for two weeks. Every year, thousands of families receive help from the government in some way.
Samaritan House provides food and other necessities to people in need through the Macomb County Community Services Agency (MCCSA). The only requirement to access the food program run by MCCSA is to be a county resident and have an emergency. After an application is approved through MCCSA, Samaritan House will make arrangements for clients who live in the service area to receive their commodity food orders.
Samaritan House is a distribution center for another local non-profit known as Focus Hope. Samaritan provides qualifying senior citizens in its service area with Focus Hope US Department of Agriculture (USDA) orders. To be eligible, clients must meet certain criteria set by Samaritan. If clients need help, Samaritan House will help them with the application process.
Christmas help is also offered by Samaritan House. Participants in the free Holiday Meal Program receive small dollar gift certificates that can be used to purchase meat. Some holiday programs will hand out a box of food that is packed specifically for traditional Easter and Thanksgiving dinners. This way, people will be able to have these meals during the right times of the year.
This program is designed to make sure that every child in a participating household has gifts to open on Christmas morning. This means that each household will receive the necessary ingredients to make a traditional holiday dinner. They can even offer referrals to charities that give away free Christmas trees.
The program begins working in October when volunteers and clients meet to make wish lists that will include the whole family. The next step is to create personalized tags for each child, describing his or her wishes. The food is then distributed to local businesses, churches, libraries, and other organizations.
The community buys gifts for children in need. In addition to the presents, each family also gets a gift card to a local grocery store so they can buy food for Christmas dinner. The Samaritan House program is supported by Ray Township Fire Fighters Ladies Auxiliary, Romeo and Washington Goodfellows, Shepherd’s Gate Lutheran Church, local businesses and Samaritan House.
The HouseShelter Assistance program provides financial assistance to tenants to help them avoid eviction. If you need help with your first month’s rent or a security deposit for a low income apartment, the program may be able to provide you with enough money, including loans. There is also emergency utility bill assistance arranged, including referrals to a crisis service that can help with utility bills.
The funds have prevented eviction for hundreds of people. Samaritian has also helped people keep their water, gas, heat, propane, oil and electrical services running. The charity has also been able to help clients with fixing things in their homes, like the furnace or water heater, as well as other needs like medical needs and water pumps. They have worked with other agencies in Macomb County to provide a lot of help. The LIHEAP crisis programs can help families with energy bills if Samaritian House does not have funding.
The Clothing Assistance Program provides low income families with blankets, coats, clothes and shoes using the Internet. The Salvation Army also uses clothing donation drives as a way to encourage members of the community to donate items they no longer need.
When a client is approved for help, Samaritan House will send an email to eCare donors describing the desired items. The clothes that are donated may be brought to Samaritan House.
The agency has teamed up with the Accounting Aid Society to offer free tax return preparation to qualifying clients in Michigan and across the nation. If you want to use this free service, you can’t make more than $25,000 a year as an individual or $50,000 as a family.
The Samaritan Back-to-School Backpacks Program provides students with new or gently used backpacks, filled with appropriate school supplies, based on the student’s age and gender. There may be stationary such as pens, notebooks and the likes. In addition to the $20 Payless Shoes gift cards, there may also be clothing given out.
The Samaritan House is a help center located at 62324 Van Dyke in Washington, Michigan. The center can be reached by phone at 586-336-9956.