Harvest for Hope, an annual gathering benefitting the Matt Urban Hope Center, returns from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 19, at the Pearl Street Grill, 76 Pearl St., Buffalo. The event provides funding so the Hope Center can continue to provide crucial services for residents of the lower East Side of Buffalo who suffer from extreme poverty (45.9 percent of whom live below the poverty rate).
The Hope Center assists residents with securing benefits and services necessary to obtain and sustain safe, decent and affordable housing. The Hope Center provides a “one-stop shop” to help homeless and low-income families get back on their feet. It also includes the “Urban Diner” (in collaboration with Friends of the Night People), where free dinners are served restaurant-style, Monday through Friday evenings to community members in need.
Other services provided by the Hope Center include employment searches, financial wellness classes, budget mentors, computer classes (designed to enhance job marketability), benefit screening, free tax prep and an asset development program. In 2014, Hope Center expanded its services to include a permanent supportive housing facility for chronically homeless women called Hope Gardens, and a 50-bed emergency shelter for women and women with children called Hope House.
