Dear North Ave Mission community,

We need your support to find a place to house four North Ave Mission members who don't have the ability to self-isolate. Please consider signing this letter advocating for a safe place for our unhoused members:

"When the crisis first hit, North Ave Mission partnered with a collaboration of ecumenical faith organizations to provide Bunches of Lunches (free groceries) at the Ynot Lot. Since then, we have successfully fundraised $2000, part of which will go to the next Bunches of Lunches, and part of which we are using to buy essential items for North Ave Mission to distribute, including protein bars, gloves, hand sanitizer, hygiene items, and socks. Now, we are fundraising an extra $1800 to provide temporary shelter for 4 of our unhoused members to self-isolate.

City shelters are well-known to our community for being unsafe and not places where we find dignity and respect. Additionally, many are worried that city shelters lack the space, infrastructure, and ability to keep residents safe and healthy during this outbreak. We are writing to ask whether we can place 4 tents in your [outdoor space] for the duration of the pandemic. North Ave Mission is offering to revisit the project every month to see whether it is going well, as well as for our Street Shepherds and Vicar, who live within blocks, to keep tabs on the space multiple times a week."

We will be sending this petition, along with a page about who we are, to churches near the Ynot Lot, as well as to the city for use of vacant lots. It would not only provide shelter but a means for individuals who are already extremely vulnerable to stay safe during COVID-19.

If you are willing to sign on and add your support, please add your name!