Shelters Continue to Fill and New Mattresses are Needed: How You Can Help!

As homeless shelters across the metro continue to fill up, the need for new mattresses continues to grow.

The FM Sheltering Churches Project is in need of 50 new air mattresses and they are asking for the community’s help.

The FM Sheltering Churches Project is trying to raise money for new air mattresses.

I spoke with one homeless man who says many don’t realize just how much that means.

For Ronald Coleman of Moorhead who is trying to get back on his feet again, two things matter the most.

“A mattress to sleep on at night, and a warm place to stay.”

Ronald is currently staying at Dorothy Day Shelter in Moorhead.

He says hearing that agencies like the Sheltering Churches Project are helping people like him have a place to sleep at night means the world.

“What it means to me? It means everything. I mean there’s no way to explain,” said Ronald.

The project says as their shelters reach capacity every night, the constant use of the mattresses has taken its toll on their condition.

In an effort to replace them, the project has created a GoFundMe Page.

“That’s a fair amount of wear and tear. You think about all those nights those mattresses are being slept on, and all the times that there inflated and deflated,” said Pastor Sue Koesterman of Elim Lutheran Church.

Pastor Sue says new mattresses will not only help with current needs, but future needs too.

“We feel like if we had 50 new mattresses available to replace those that are aging out, those would get us through the rest of this season. It will also give us a good start with whatever happens next year,” said Pastor Sue.

But she says mattresses are only a temporary bandage to a bigger issue in our area; affordable housing.

“The solution to homelessness is not a mattress on church basement floors… it’s homes,” said Pastor Sue.

The project has currently raised more than $2,000 of its $2,500 goal.

If you would like to donate, click here