Salvation Army of Aiken looks to help as homelessness grows
AIKEN, S.C. (WRDW/WAGT) - Homelessness is growing in Aiken, and the Salvation Army’s shelter is reaching capacity every night.
With the growing need of people looking for a place to rest their heads, the Salvation Army of Aiken is working to bring those numbers down under new leadership.
Capt. Michael Good is new to the area, but not to the Salvation Army itself.
His family once needed assistance.
“For my parents, it changed the course of their life, and they became Salvation Army officers ministering in the same way that I do now,” said Good.
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Good has been the commanding officer in Aiken for one month.
He says the shelter has been at capacity each day since 2022.
“We are seeing a rise in the amount of seniors that we serve, we are seeing a rise in the amount of individuals that have mental health concerns, we are seeing a rise in families that are coming to us for assistance,” he said.
He says they are pushing their Lifenav Program, which partners their clients with a case worker who takes a look into what brought them here to need help.
“It could be education, it could be budgeting, it could be even mental health, so what we strive to do is to partner that individual with resources internally or externally with other partner agencies to help bring that individual to self-efficiency, re-housing them, as well as breaking cycles of poverty in their life,” said Good.
They have a soup kitchen at their shelter which serves almost 200 meals daily.
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Robin Harden is from the area and spends her time giving back.
“It’s good that I can come here and be around the people I grew up around and help the homeless and the hungry,” said Harden.
Good says they are looking for community partners to be a part of combating homelessness.
“We are looking for individuals to partner with us to teach classes like budgeting, parenting skills, nutritional cooking, life skills that our individuals that reside here don’t necessarily have,” said Good.
The Salvation Army of Aiken has been around for almost 100 years.
The group is in need of volunteers, food and water.
To learn more, visit https://southernusa.salvationarmy.org/aiken/home.
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