LANSING — Holy Cross Services, which runs one of the region’s largest shelters, is dealing with financial challenges that mean fewer meals for poor people.
The Saginaw-based organization operates its homelessness outreach in Lansing from the New Hope Community Center, at the corner of North Larch and Shiawassee streets, and that center recently reduced its daily meals, shedding lunch and keeping breakfast and dinner.
It now serves breakfast and dinner during the week with sack meals on the weekends for those who are assigned a bed in the shelter. The meals are available from 8:30 a.m. to 9:30 a.m. and from 4:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m.
Steve Adamczyk, CEO of the organization, said reducing the meals was partially for financial reasons, and reducing meals has been done before, and also reflects the lower demand for lunches during the warm months.
Adamczyk said Holy Cross Services is having financial difficulties, just like many non-profits are, especially the organizations that work with people who are homeless.
“Non-profits are experiencing financial difficulties all over,” said Adamczyk while also declining to provide financial details. “It’s in donations, government funding, the rising costs of food and the economic instability contributed to our financial picture.”
According to 2022 tax documents, the most recent year available, Holy Cross Services employed about 450 people and had about $15 million in revenue, $9 million of that from program revenues and $4.5 million from grants.
Adamczyk said his organization has not lost any grants but is seeing donations drop, along with fewer veteran clients and under a previous CEO they had closed a residential services division that had brought in significant revenue.
He said Holy Cross continues working to complete a 60-unit expansion project by the end of the year, with the help of an $800,000 grant from the city of Lansing.
Adamczyk was promoted last year to lead the organization following the firing of CEO Ryan Kunzelman in November over his advocacy for LGBTQ+ causes, which Holy Cross officials said went beyond guidelines.
“We want to ensure the community, our donors and stakeholders we fully intend to stay committed to our mission and any funds entrusted to us are and will be watched carefully,” Adamczyk said.
Holy Cross has foster operations in most Michigan counties. The nonprofit’s headquarters are in Saginaw and it has operations in Gaylord, Mt. Morris, Muskegon, Clinton Township and Detroit as well as Lansing.
Also, amid the financial challenges, Nancy Oliver, Holy Cross’ executive director for less than two years, apparently is looking for a new job.
Oliver, who did not immediately return a phone call, posted on her LinkedIn page that she is seeking new employment and can start “immediately” and is “actively applying.”
She wrote on the page that her time as Holy Cross’ executive director ends in June 2025. She joined the agency in 2022 as a division director and became executive director in February 2024.
Adamczyk declined to confirm if Oliver is no longer the director, saying personnel issues are private. But he did say the center is looking for a temporary director who could turn into a long-term solution.
Contact Mike Ellis at mellis@lsj.com or 517-267-0415
This article originally appeared on Lansing State Journal: One of Lansing’s largest homeless shelters cutting services amid budget problems
Reporting by Mike Ellis, Lansing State Journal / Lansing State Journal
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