We raised more than $1,000 at our recent one-day giving event at the Farmer's Market and we'd like to thank everyone who was involved in this effort, from our donors, to the Grant County Community Foundation and all those who helped sponsor it and to all of the partners and donation matching groups that were involved.

These funds will be used to help purchase food for our food pantry and soup kitchen and we should be able to make them last at least a couple of weeks (see our operating budget).

It's nice to see all of the local non-profits and the community at large gather together in one spot and discuss issues, network, provide info on our services and hear what the public would like to see more of.

One of the top items we heard folks ask for was a full-time homeless shelter for men. We currently have a women and children's transitional home, but no place to put men during the warmer months.

Numerous solutions are being discussed, but what it really comes down to is the resources to do it properly.

Alex Brown, Silver City Town Manager has offered to purchase a storage container that we may be able to turn into a shelter, but building codes prevent us from doing so within city limits.

And if we ever do find either a home, building or other solution to our men's homeless problem we will still need the funding to run it and most importantly a small salary sufficient for someone responsible to supervise it every night. We have written a few grants for this purpose, but so far without any luck.

I had a few calls today about a homeless man being kicked out of his camping spot by 32nd street bypass, but apart from giving him food and clothing or sometimes a sleeping bag or a tent, there is not much else we can do for him.

But we are working on his case and hope to have some type of solution soon.

Occasionally, we are able to put them up with family or friends, get them a bus ride to someplace more suitable or a large city shelter, get them into rehab or put them up in a hotel room for a couple of nights, but sadly we can't do very much else at the current time.

We'd love to hear your feedback and hopefully we will have some type of solution before this next winter hits.