Union Gospel Mission (Portland, Oregon)

Uh, I mean, I was willing to do just about anything because I had a family to feed.

And I see this advertisement for Union Gospel Mission in, in Spokane, Washington, and I just...

I don't know, I didn't know what they had a women's-- I don't know what I thought they did with women who were homeless.

Uh, but I'm, uh, apply for it, and I find out it's a women's shelter they're actually hiring for.

Welcome Home, Hear Us Now, a podcast of the Union Gospel Mission of Tarrant County, a space for all of us seeking

what's real and sacred in a world that rushes past the soul.

Eric Engelman here in the green room, and next to me is Fr.

Something's got to happen.

Thank you, God.

Father Rogers Meredith is the head chaplain here at Union Gospel Mission in Tarrant County.

I was senior chaplain, yeah.

Senior chaplain.

That measure would increase property taxes by $5 a month on average, and increase funding for homelessness service by $100 million annually.

For 77 years, the Union Gospel Mission in Dallas has been sheltering and serving the homeless, and is among the agencies that would receive increased funding if Prop A passes.

They held a symposium over the weekend called Conversations on a Bench, where they took an accounting of the crisis and talked through potential solutions.

Bruce Butler is the CEO of Union Gospel Mission, and joins us this morning for a closer look at both.

Hey, Bruce.

Hello, Amanda.

What is your argument to the- the hardest skeptic who says, "Well, I don't wanna pay 60 more bucks a year on average in my property taxes"?

Well, I would say they have a valid argument if that's their only question.

Mm-hmm.

Uh, and then I also give to Union Gospel Mission here in Spokane just a little bit every week-

Mm-hmm

... because I really admire the specific way they do what they do.

Yeah.

So I like to give to the home parish, but I also feel compelled to even just, like, I, I'm a teacher, not a rich man, just a little bit, uh, to people who are doing really good work in ways that I think are building people up.

So I like, I like Union Gospel Mission a lot as well.

Yeah.

Right.

Union Gospel Mission.

Um, but I, I would do that, I think, first and foremost because I think it's, there's, there's so many people that need money right now period.

And then maybe, uh, maybe, uh, with the rest of it I'd pay rent for a year for some families-

Well, you know what he did? He began to place in my heart the desire to preach maybe in a mission.

And so I went down on Union Street to Union Gospel Mission.

And I went in the front door and one of the two ladies that ran the place, two little old maiden ladies ran this mission.

It's gone long, long ago now.

So we kind of provided like people to help them do sound and do work crew and help with that.

Or Luke Frank, our good friend who works with Union Gospel Mission.

They were ready to expand into a new neighborhood because he runs these neighborhood cohorts of leaders coming together around homelessness.

And they wanted to be in Ballard.

Well, if your legal documents, if your estate plan does not express that intent, then then your successor trustee or your power of attorney agent would be limited in the ability to help others because templated language says, have all of my finances be used for me and me alone.

Here's another question that many people get surprised by, which is if you are generous in your life, so if you're a tither, if you give to a missionary and you had a health incident, do you want to continue to give generously to your church, to the missionary, to the Union Gospel Mission, or to any other nonprofit that you give to regardless of your faith or regardless of what...

The reasons that you give? Well, in a circumstance, unless it is specifically discussed, if you encountered a health incident and someone else had to come in and take over your finances, again, they may be limited to actually having the legal authority to give your money to nonprofits like you did in the past.

Right.