Zion Shelter and Food Kitchen, Beaufort County’s only homeless shelter, announced in October that if new funding sources weren’t found, it would close after almost 30 years of service to the area’s homeless population. The story of how the community came together to ensure the shelter’s survival is the Washington Daily News’ No. 5 story of the year.

Opened in 1986, the shelter has served the local and transient homeless population, in addition to serving lunches to anyone in need five days a week. Located in the basement of the Metropolitan A.M.E. Zion Church on Washington’s Fourth Street, it has 12 beds that are always in demand, according to Harlan McKendrick, the Zion board treasurer.

In recent years, however, funds shelter board members have relied upon have dried up in the wake of budget cuts at both the city and state level. While food is donated regularly from many local entities, it’s the operating expense — utilities, supplies and the salaries of the shelter’s only two employees of manager and executive director — that make up the largest expenditure of funds.

In the months preceding the announcement, McKendrick tried to drum up support to keep the shelter open. When McKendrick approached the county commissioners at the October meeting, they asked him to return with his funding request during next year’s budget meetings.

McKendrick has been on the shelter board since it was created nearly 30 years ago. Over the years, shelter funding has seen its ups and downs — three years ago, the shelter was in the same dire situation, but received a $10,000 bequest from a Bath woman’s estate just in time.

“We’ll just close down and tell the homeless men to move out (if no funding is found),” McKendrick said.

In November, members of local churches sent out letters to the area churches, asking for congregations to take up a love offering to benefit the shelter and dedicate Sunday, Nov. 29, as “Zion Shelter Sunday,” according to Dr. Frank Sheldon, a local surgeon and member of Old Ford Church of Christ.

Old Ford took up a love offering, yielding almost $900, and sent it to the shelter, as was requested in the letters to other churches.

Since September, the shelter managers saw an increase in donations, enough to ensure its continued service to the county’s homeless for the next six months or so, according to McKendrick. The shelter received around $30,000 since its announcement, including a one-time $12,500 appropriation from the board of county commissioners.

Commissioner Robert Belcher brought the issue to the board, explaining he had studied the shelter’s finances and found that in fiscal year 2014, it had receipts of $42,000 and expenditures of $54,000, as well as a rapidly dropping fund balance. He requested commissioners make up the deficit with the appropriation.

Commissioner Ed Booth said he supported funding the shelter, partially because the county would end up paying a greater cost if its doors closed.

Shelter Manager Jonathan Gaskins was present for the discussion, which quickly narrowed to who should be financially supporting the facility. When questioned as to who made up Zion’s population, Gaskins told commissioners nearly all of their clients were men from Beaufort County, or had just been released from behavioral health facilities in neighboring Pitt County, many of whom have drug or alcohol addictions.

Commissioner Frankie Waters had also researched Zion Shelter’s funding, nearly all of which comes from Beaufort County United Way, the City of Washington and church donations, he told the board. He said Zion’s issue was not mismanagement of funds, but simply a lack of funding — funding that should be provided by other sources.

Belcher’s motion passed, 6-1, and McKendrick was asked to return during the county’s budgeting process in the spring to request any funding for following fiscal year.

Since, the shelter has received an immense amount of food donations, causing the facility’s managers to find additional space for food storage. The shelter receives regular food distribution via the Food Bank of the Albemarle, most of which is reasonably priced and costs little money. But it also has operating costs such as heating and cooling and other utilities, McKendrick said.

Other donations included 12 turkeys to feed the homeless over Thanksgiving and Christmas from area resident Joseph Savage, regular food donations from Eagle’s Wings food pantry, a $200 donation from a neighbor of shelter director Robert Harris and a $1000-donation from Washington Noon Rotary, a donation that was possible from a successful Smoke on the Water event this fall.

“We’ve been getting donations,” Harris said. “It’s almost overwhelming. I’ve never seen people come together so well to give to the shelter. Closing is out of the question right now. People have responded so well to our financial needs. So, right now, we’re out of the woods on (closing). As far as food, we’ve gotten so much stuff in, we hardly have a place to put it now.

“We never thought people even knew much of the Zion Shelter. We’ve never heard much about us in the community. But since (the notice of a lack of funds), we’ve had people come and give us money in our hands to keep things going. We’ve gotten letters with donations from almost every church around. We’re doing very well now; we’re stronger than we were when we first started because we have so many people in the community that are now with us.”