Three Oaks Reaches Out

The Three Oaks Center held a Community Forum Friday at the Southern Maryland Higher Education Center in California, Maryland to educate the local faith-based community about their mission and engage their help in fighting homelessness in St. Mary’s County.

Three Oaks staff and board members explained their mission and funding structure and implored local churches to lend a hand.

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“St. Mary’s County does have homelessness,” said Phil Horne, president of Three Oaks. “Affordable housing is just not there. Many families are on the verge of losing their homes.” With the increase in need and the decrease in resources, Horne said, “The days of doing homelessness by ourselves is over.”

“We’re looking at ways that we can join together,” said Walter Nilsson, pastor of Cornerstone Presbyterian Church and past president of Three Oaks. However, he said, it is first necessary to educate potential partners about Three Oaks’ role. “It is not understood very well what we do as an organization.”

“Today, we’re asking you to continue our partnership and strengthen it,” said Roderick McClanahan, pastor of First Missionary Baptist Church and a board member of Three Oaks.

“We understand the power of what you, our partner organizations, bring to the table,” said Donnita Moore, a Three Oaks board member. “We want to make this a true two-way communication. … Come visit, explore, ask questions. We’re in this together. We are not an island. We cannot do this alone.”

Three Oaks asked the churches to help by becoming life coaches for their clients, providing meals and advocating for the center.

“This is about you taking this information back to your families, your churches, your employers,” said Lanny Lancaster, executive director of Three Oaks.

Nilsson explained that Three Oaks aims to promote the dignity of their clients, maintain the integrity of their mission, treat their clients with compassion and encourage community ownership of the county’s homelessness problem.

“We will not drop the ball!” Moore said. “Know that when you refer a client to Three Oaks, we will bring our best and the brightest to bear.”

Three Oaks receives approximately 74 percent of its nearly $600,000 budget from governmental and quasi-governmental organizations. The center uses funding from St. Mary’s County government as matching funds for grants from the federal Housing and Urban Development department.

“We can only serve the people we have resources for,” Lancaster said. “We couldn’t receive the HUD supportive housing grants without leveraging the county’s money. What we’re doing is preventing these clients from using resources that cripple our county,” such as those of the hospital and police. “They can’t cope on their own.”

Three Oaks’ men’s and women’s shelters have 20 beds each for emergency housing. Their off-site transitional housing has 77 beds. Their permanent disability housing has 61 beds. The number of clients referred to Three Oaks jumped to 742 in 2011 from 676 in 2010. The center helped 326 women in 2011, up from 284 in 2010. But it was only able to help 293 men (down from 317) and 362 children (down from 391) due to lack of resources.

“The focus has moved beyond men to focus on women and children,” McClanahan said.

Three Oaks also aims to bolster their budget with fundraisers this year, including a Capital Steps performance March 31; a cabaret dinner and dance event May 12; and a golf tournament in July.