Building a 30,000 sq. foot Homeless Shelter | Documentary Idea

by Richard Myers
(Lexington Park, Maryland)

Oct. 2014 - This story follows a hand full of federal employees who decide to open up a much needed homeless shelter in St Mary’s County Maryland (Lexington Park).

This story follows the struggles and victories of picking the building (we have located the building already), to handling and talking with city zoning, detailing grant(s) for purchasing and rehabbing this 30,000 sq. foot building.

The story will follow us as we go to large cities and see the dos and don’ts of homeless shelters.

We have located and began talking with a woman who is the director of several Baltimore homeless shelters which have 70 employees. She has been helping the homeless in Baltimore for 40 years and is somewhat famous. We will be doing this for several cities. The story will follow us as we learn through hopefully the hard knocks of others the Government rules/regulations.

The story will follow us as we put together a committee who can help make this happen and the personal struggles/victories of the different areas involved.

We will try to contact others who have failed at opening up a shelter or ones that had a shelter open and then had it close, we want to hear their stories.

We will be talking with the local homeless and the impact that this shelter will have not only on them but the local homeless vets. We will follow three or four homeless persons or families and be there when they first get registered and singed into their new home. (This is very important to show the humanity and necessity and how it will change lives). I Want at the end of this documentary to have people crying, or feel emotion for the homeless family's that are now not having to be on the street, and the new hope that they will have. I want to show how there struggle has been lifted.

We will then also be meeting with various city councils and local politicians and the local neighborhood and get reactions. “Support or Non-support" as the project progresses.

This is a story of the struggles of the homeless and the bureaucratic mess of dealing with Federal Grants for the purchase and rehab of this building.

We will show the real estate negotiations for the property. We will show the design process of the building and the contract award for the rehab the building. We then will show the subsequent issues and completion of the building. All this while we struggle to raise money for all the furniture and necessary items for the shelter which will not be covered in the grants. Including reaching out to many of the hundreds of churches in the area for the necessary support.

All of this while sticking to our Christian faith and being tested at every turn.

I really hope someone reads this and wants to help us!!