The 2023 campaign ended without reaching its goal, but the future looks optimistic

The program provides grants to pay for rent, utilities, and medicine to people at risk of homelessness due to unexpected expenses.

Since the campaign launched on November 19th, readers have donated $180,044. This is almost $9,000 less than donations made during the same period a year ago and well below the $238,603 donated in 2021.

But RAM Executive Director Melissa Woodson is confident the fundraiser will reach its goal by the end of March, when the last trickle-in donations are counted. In the end, she said, the final total for last year’s fundraiser came in just $400 short of the goal.

“We’re going to close that gap,” she said. “It’s still a really good number.”

Woodson believes this year’s totals are particularly impressive considering the housing market is impacting all income groups. In Roanoke alone, the number of people who have lost their homes has increased by 20% this year, she said, and wait times for homestead tickets have also increased.

“Rent is so high right now,” she says, adding that RAM is the only agency she knows that will pay a deposit. “They went up too.”

Woodson said the agency’s wish list hasn’t had a big response, but frequent donors have brought in “a ton” of stamps. Woodson said the stamps are not only needed for RAM’s day-to-day operations, but are also used to mail thank-you letters to Good Neighbors Fund donors.

The biggest item the agency requested was two new laptops to allow RAM to connect and interact with other agencies in the Valley. Fortunately, Woodson said they were able to secure a grant to cover the cost. If anyone still wants to donate, she said, the extra money will be used to upgrade the model.

“It takes a lot of time [memory] “To do this,” she said.

Mr Woodson said one thing charities never have to worry about is in-kind donations. RAM’s website has a frequently changing list of needs.

“We always need aluminum foil, gloves and coffee cups,” she said. “If we need water, we get it.

“The Roanoke Valley has been doing this for 53 years this month. It’s amazing how responsive they are. You don’t have to lift a finger.”

The only problem, she said, is that while people are very generous during the holidays, the agency’s needs are year-round. For the rest of this year, “we hope people will take a peek at our kitchen needs,” she said.

Despite having less money available last year, Woodson and his staff began tackling new issues that had long needed attention.

“Transportation is a huge issue in Roanoke, and transportation is closely tied to homelessness,” she says. Walking everywhere takes time, she said, and “if you’re not in good health, you don’t have the energy to do anything else.”

People often walk more than a mile to get the free hot lunches handed out daily in the shelter’s kitchen, and the charity’s parking lot often sees old cars in which guests arrive break down.

There have always been people living in poverty who can’t afford cars, but the problem has worsened since the pandemic, with even used cars priced out of many budgets, Woodson said.

Last year, RAM added some additional donations to its general fund to purchase bus passes for some of its customers. Funding from the Good Neighbors Fund has been used in the past for this purpose.

“Think about what the streets of Roanoke would have looked like over the past 40 years if it weren’t for the Good Neighbors Fund,” she said.

But perhaps the most exciting news of the year is that after years of fundraising and searching real estate listings, the agency has purchased a new site that better meets its growing needs than its current 100-year-old former church building. That’s probably true. is housed in.

The new facility has room to fulfill Woodson’s long-held goal of providing mental health services to people who come to RAM seeking help. “They’re a really underserved group,” she says.

More detailed plans for the new location in the 400 block of Elm Avenue SW will be discussed at a press conference Friday at RAM’s current location at 824 Campbell Avenue, SW.

The agency will also use this opportunity to honor legacy donors.

Woodson said she is grateful to the Good Neighbors Fund and the readers who donate to it.

“The Good Neighbors Fund is a very positive thing for RAM House,” she said. “Grants come and go, but they support us throughout the year, so we’re always getting new donors. People certainly want to be good neighbors, and they care about the plight of others. I also understand.”

Woodson said he is especially grateful to the paper’s former president and publisher, Walter Lugaber, who established the fund 40 years ago.

“His legacy continues,” she said.