Community Homeless Outreach Center Of Lancaster

Click here to visit CHOC's website

Open 9:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. • Monday through Friday
210 S. Prince St., Lancaster (Chapel of Water St Ministries)

A Cost-effective Solution to a Pressing Community Need

The Community Homeless Outreach Center (CHOC) is a daytime drop-in facility that provides a safe haven for chronically homeless individuals to rest, shower, launder clothing and receive help with accessing human services. By meeting basic hygiene needs and connecting clients with existing service providers, CHOC serves as a single point of entry for people experiencing chronic homelessness to start along a path toward permanent housing and stable lives.

We provide:
• Showers, bathrooms, laundry, telephones, small items storage.
• On-site access to human services agencies and programs.

We are:
• Equipped to serve 60 individuals or more per week.
• Staffed by a full-time director and volunteers.

• CHOC 2010 Nonprofit Innovation Award Winner
• Read about the partnership that created CHOC
• Check Out the Latest CHOC Newsletter

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Community benefits

The most important mission of the Center is to serve people experiencing chronic homelessness, but it benefits the community in other important ways as well.

• ALTERNATIVE TO THE STREET

  The Center offers a better place for homeless people to choose to spend time during the day, rather than public spaces.

• MORE EFFECTIVE USE OF FUNDING

  Because chronically homeless people consume a disproportionate share of money allocated to social and health programs, helping these individuals improve their situation can free up resources to serve others more effectively.

• VOLUNTEERISM AND EDUCATION

  The Center is building a broad-based volunteer network and providing local college students with opportunities for internships & field experience in social work.

• WIDER PARTICIPATION IN ADDRESSING THE COUNTY'S HOMELESSNESS PROBLEM

  By supporting the Center, groups outside of Lancaster City can contribute in a meaningful way to helping homeless people, many of whom come to the city from communities throughout the county.

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Who We Serve

All homelessness is not the same. A large majority of the homeless population in Lancaster County - more than 600 people on any given day - consists of individuals and families in transition, temporarily without housing because of a personal or financial setback.

However, about 10 percent of homeless people virtually live in the system of emergency and transitional shelters, suffering long periods of homelessness and cycling through many programs and services. This small group consumes about 50 percent of the system's resources. These are the chronically homeless, the primary group that the Community Homeless Outreach Center serves.

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How Can I Help?

As a community project, the Center needs community support - your support.

You can help in two ways:

• SEND A DONATION TO:

  The Community Homeless Outreach Center
  c/o Tabor Community Services
  P.O. Box 1676
  Lancaster, PA 17608-1676

  Contributions qualify as a tax deduction.
  Please make checks payable to
  The Community Homeless Outreach Center

• BECOME A VOLUNTEER

  Volunteers are needed to greet clients as they arrive, monitor activity, enter data into the homeless administration system, and simply sit down and talk! Orientation and guidance is provided.

  For more information about volunteering, please call the Center at 358-2070.

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