CLEVELAND — Members of the Fairmount Presbyterian Church in Cleveland Heights rallied together with one goal in mind: help end homelessness. With a campaign that began in 2021, the church is now donating more than $126,000 to the Lutheran Metropolitan Ministry (LMM) to help purchase and renovate houses for families coming out of homelessness.
LMM has been raising funds for its Breaking New Ground campaign, an affordable housing project set in Cleveland's St. Clair-Superior neighborhood made up of 20 single family homes and duplexes.
In March 2021, the Fairmount Presbyterian Church began its own campaign to assist, called We Have a House to Buy, finding a good use for its increased endowment income.
The church began with a $50,000 dollar donation to LMM, but the church's governing body pledged to match that donation by raising an additional $50,000 from the congregation.
Before the church got the chance to make the request to its congregation, the church members were already on board, raising half of the funds before the campaign was even announced, according to the church.
The idea was so well received by the congregation that a total of 72 donors gave a total of $76,523.84. A Sunday preschool class at the church even chipped in, with the children bringing a total of $3.81 in for donation.
The funds were presented to LMM Sunday and got the group closer to its goal of $3.5 million for the housing project, with just $350,000 left to be raised.
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