AUSTIN CITY LUTHERANS
“More, Better, Together” since 2011!
Ministries Serving Low-Income Neighbors – Fall 2022
GREETINGS IN CHRIST’S NAME FROM ACL!
We are the ELCA congregations in and around the Texas capital city—and that includes you. Since its inception in 2011, ACL has sought ways to fellowship and minister in Austin following the simple moniker that we can do “more, better, together.”
Rent Assistance and Move-In Ministry
ACL is walking alongside BFA neighbors—many of these single moms with young children—to help stabilize housing situations.
Our new emphasis on combating and preventing homelessness coalesced positively this past spring for a handful of neighbors served at Bread For All Food Pantry. We had received a grant from a funder at Austin Community Foundation for $40,000 to provide rent assistance and made applications available in March. Twenty-three neighbors received one month’s rent (ranging from $700–$1450) the last week of April and some of these also received additional support to minimize rental debts they had accrued.
With rental rates rising in Austin and no evictions moratorium in place, people who are “cost-burdened” (paying 30 percent or more of their monthly income on rent) are a step or two away from homelessness. Neither is this increasingly common situation good for landlords, many of whom rely upon rental payments as their own livelihood.
ACL’s rent assistance program (the second such program conducted in two years) helped two families reestablish their living arrangements after an eviction and a non-renewal of lease.
One mom and her children exhausted all their savings after spending five weeks in a cheap hotel waiting for a new lease after their previous lease was not renewed. Another mom and her children, evicted from their apartment, spent two nights in their minivan in a Walmart parking lot, and then three weeks in the living room of a friend’s apartment before they moved into a new living arrangement at a different apartment complex.
With a big assist from St. Martin’s move-in ministry team, both families also received furniture—beds, kitchen tables and chairs, couches, dressers and other necessities—in their new apartments. Thanks also to Holy Cross for giving ACL the storage space necessary to gather good used furniture items for this important ministry.
Contact Pastor Tim Anderson if you have furniture (see list below) to donate.
Furniture Donation List – Our volunteers come by to pick-up:
*Sturdy kitchen tables and chairs *Coffee tables and end tables
*Living room chairs and sofas (not from cat or dog owners) *Dressers
*Newer TVs and Microwaves *Lamps
Unfortunately, we do not take the following items: used mattresses, desks, sleeper sofas, recliners.
We do take donations to help purchase new mattresses and frames (at discount).
Bread For All Food Pantry Update
BFA continues to serve close to (and sometimes more than) 100 individuals and families every Monday evening at Faith Presbyterian Church. Thanks to our wonderful volunteers who labor from noon to 7 p.m. on Mondays to set-up and accomplish the distribution. Thanks also to supporters who donate food and diapers, and to those who support ACL and its efforts (including BFA) financially. It is all greatly needed and appreciated!
Mariposa FLC Fundraiser Dinner – October 21
