KILLEEN, Texas (KXXV) — Killeen's only overnight shelter is set to close at the end of the year due to a lack of city funding, and a local nonprofit is stepping up to fill the gap — if the city gives its approval.
Armor of God, a nonprofit that provides resources for people experiencing homelessness, is proposing a new shelter off of Rancier and Medical Drive. The facility would house 44 people, with space for families, and offer meals, daily community service, mental health support, and Bible and life skills classes.
Armor of God CEO J.T. Haun said he got involved after attending a city council meeting where leaders discussed Friends in Crisis, the organization currently operating Killeen's only overnight shelter.
"I met with Friends in Crisis to see how we could help, and I just realized that they do a great job of providing shelter, but there was no movement, there was no healing in that," Haun said.
"What we're trying to do here is to provide shelter, meet the need, but not let them stay where they are. We want to start getting them to a place of stability, getting them jobs, getting them GEDs, getting them trained up in different things and find a true purpose in life," Haun said.
Haun said purpose is at the center of everything Armor of God does.
"The purpose is what guides all of us. It doesn't matter if you're unhoused or housed. Without a purpose, it's hard to know where you're going," Haun said.
The shelter would cost approximately $300,000 to operate and would run entirely on volunteers, with the exception of security staff.
Haun said the organization plans to bring residents in through a phased intake process, starting with 16 people in mid-October to mid-November, adding another 16 in mid-December, and filling the remaining 12 spots by the end of the year. He said the program would follow a 180-day timeline with goals set at 30, 60, 90, and 180 days.
"We're going to go back, and we're going to say, ' What's keeping you from there? What's the hindrance? Why have you lost this? And we're going to start working on that through the processes of these different classes," Haun said.
He said the program would incorporate trauma-informed care, addiction recovery, financial literacy, credit repair, and peer-to-peer support.
"We want to go to the root of the problem with the trauma that they have. We don't want to just stay focused on the problem — we want to start really dealing with the solutions," Haun said.
Alongside the shelter, Armor of God is preparing to open a thrift store that would help employ and support residents enrolled in the organization's program.
"What we want to do here is that we want to start them in a process of finding something they love to do, finding a purpose in their life, finding a job that they like — whether it's mowing a yard or building a house, or working at the thrift store, or doing nails, doing hair," Haun said.
"It's little things. It just takes little things to make a difference, to fill the gaps, to do those things, and that's all we're trying to do is the little things," Haun said.
Haun said his commitment to helping people experiencing homelessness grew from a personal relationship with a young man named Zay, following the loss of his son in a car accident.
"I said, 'Zay, what is it that you need?' He said, I just need my driver's license. So I said, OK, well let's go for a ride. So we got in a van, and we started driving, and it was the scariest thing I ever did," Haun said.
Haun said that as the miles added up, so did the trust between them.
"As he learned to drive, trust happened, and then trust, love happened, and, you know, just, it's just a process; it's not really, really that hard. We just have to love one another and love, you know, that's what we have to do, but you have to break through barriers to get there," Haun said.
He also reflected on the recent loss of another man he had worked with, JT Smallwood, who died in a car accident.
"JT came to me in a church parking lot, ready to take his life. And we just started loving him. We took him fishing. His thing was fishing. Me and a couple of men took him fishing, and we loved on him, and we started working towards getting him to a better place," Haun said.
"You got to love people through things, and sometimes it's just hard because they feel like they've been abandoned, they feel like they've been dropped, they feel like they can't quit, they feel like they can't make it. You just got to love them and strengthen them to make it," Haun said.
As the Killeen City Council considers whether to approve the new shelter, some residents have raised concerns about what it could bring to their neighborhood. Haun said the organization plans to address those concerns through action, including 2 to 4 hours of daily community service in surrounding neighborhoods.
"My goal is that as we come out and we support this neighborhood with community service hours, we're going to walk the neighborhood together, me included, and we're going to pick up trash in this neighborhood," Haun said.
He also pushed back on assumptions about people experiencing homelessness.
"We're not trying to attract bad people. We're not trying to attract people who have mental health instability. We're going to love them where they're at. Just because you're homeless doesn't mean you have issues or you're a sexual predator or you're an alcoholic or a drug addict or have mental health issues. There's a lot of good people that don't have those things that are just down on their luck," Haun said.
Haun said he views the current building as a short-term solution while the organization works toward something larger.
"In my heart, this is short-term. I believe God's going to do a lot bigger things than just right here," Haun said.
Haun said he hopes to open the thrift store in the coming weeks and begin intake for the shelter by mid-October to mid-November. The shelter proposal is scheduled to go before the Killeen City Council on October 6.
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