Church pledges $6K to warming shelter

From Vermont-

Immanuel Episcopal Church recently pledged a four-figure donation to the Greater Falls Warming Shelter to assist the area’s homeless.

The Rev. Steven G. Fuller Sr., the church’s outreach leader, said Immanuel will provide the shelter with $6,000 to be used as seed money to make sure there it secures a permanent residence in Bellows Falls. The money will be given on the condition that other churches and organizations match it to create a fund for this purpose.

The GFWS operated in the basement of Athens Pizza House in 2010/2011 in Bellows Falls with a temporary permit but was denied a permanent one late last year by the Rockingham Planning Commission & Zoning Board of Adjustment, which became deadlocked in a 3-3 vote. The shelter’s board of directors started the process of appealing the non-opinion to the state’s environmental court but recently decided against it.

Fuller, as well as the wardens and vestry of Immanuel Episcopal Church, wrote a letter to the Reformer’s editors, stating that they became greatly concerned when the shelter was denied a permit.

Though the GFWS has been renting private apartments to help homeless individuals, it can accommodate only eight people. GFWS Chairwoman Louise Luring said the shelter has in the past assisted many more people at once.

More here-

http://www.reformer.com/localnews/ci_20368927/church-pledges-6k-warming-shelter