House of Hope CMG Community Shelter

Wesley Haselden

Why I give them a one is because they only help me out with a place to stay for a 11 day and I think it's is wrong that they have people there for 45 days and 6 days was in a motel room and because I work there can not help me.... I will sleep in my car before I asked this shelter for help anymore

Trina Byrd

I am writing this review 3 years after my stay at this shelter. Not sure what is making me think of my time there, but I felt it was appropriate to share it. While this is a nice clean facility, there were a a number of experiences that dramatically changed my overall view. In 2019, I was homeless for 2 and a half months. I was allowed to stay longer because I was actively seeking employment, making sure my kids were enrolled and attending school, and actively seeking resources that would allow my to find a home. About half of the staff was kind and understanding that I was in a bad situation and nothing more. I lost my job, didn’t qualify for unemployment, and had no family to stay with. The other half looked at you as though they assumed that everyone was on drugs or violent. When I went there the first night, the staff was so kind, respectful, and were great to my children. My immediate impression was that this was a place that was going to be completely supportive in my search for housing. I was naive to think so unfortunately. The rules seemed to change depending on who was on shift. The very next day, when the night staff left, the lady in charge was rude, dismissive, and seemed to look for opportunities to argue with the people there. It felt like she thought we were beneath her and had no right to question her. I had to turn my phone in, so while I was inside, I had no method of communicating with anyone unless I snuck my phone in, which I had to do because I was doing applications on my phone and waiting for calls from employers for interviews. I also had family out of state that was checking in on me and trying to find ways to help me and my children. So it wasn’t practical to leave my phone with the staff. The place was ran like a prison on most days. We had to wake at a certain time. We weren’t allowed back into the rooms until bedtime. Once we went outside for the day, we couldn’t go back inside until check in later in the day when dinner was about to be served. If we did check in our phones, we had to wait until we were allowed breaks to step outside and use them. Honestly, though, I was in the military and it felt a bit like that so it wasn’t much of a shock aside from the fact that we were civilians whose main issues were not having homes. But even with all that, my biggest issue was the husband of the director, Mr. Vereen, was the worse part of my time there. Mr. Vereen was judgemental, rude, and condescending. He didn’t seem to have sincere compassion for anyone there. At times, he appeared kind, but considering the way he yelled at adults as though they were children when talking would suffice, I just couldn’t appreciate his presence. His wife is amazing! Which was a complete shock to me. I met him before I met her and assumed that talking to her would have been like talking to him. She had a seriousness about her which can be intimidating, but the moment she asked my plan and laid it out for her what I wanted to do, she was supportive and kind. She was the reason I was able to stay for so long. She clearly is there to help. Which confused me even more why her husband was the way he was. My worst encounter with Mr. Vereen was a day when I was refused entry. The night before, the staff member didn’t remember to sign me in. I think my children and I were at the end of the line, we were last and food was about to be served so she said to go ahead and eat and she would do it later. I didn’t know this at the time, but another mother with her two children that were there had left in the middle of the night against the direction of staff. When me and my kids left for work and school and returned that night, we were told our place was given up because we checked out early and in the middle of the night. I explained that me and my children were there the entire night, ate breakfast, and left at the same time as everyone else. But Mr. Vereen already had his opinion of me, screamed at me for doing something I didn’t do & the room for me and my kids was given away. I hope I never need to return here.

Cassie Marlow

First of all they put me an my 11 month old out for something we had nothing to do with these people are a joke.

Crystal Kairis

They turned my son and I away because my son is disabled and because he was standing in one spot for several hours theycalled that bizarre behavior however there was another young man there eating out of the trash but that was not bizarre behavior however they did give us a voucher for three days in a motel and told me that I needed to get my son to a doctor before they would allow us to stay there well if I'm homeless I certainly don't have the money to send my child to the doctor I thought that a homeless shelter was that place that you go when you were in need and they would point you in the directions that you need to go to get help such as going to the doctor and not having money to pay for it and they direct you on who to speak with and where to go and transportation🙏 all we can do is pray for the staff and for the people that makes the decisions there that they would open their minds and hearts to each and every person that they would not discriminate