CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- A nonprofit organization in Charlotte is providing transitional shelter primarily to homeless transgender people and domestic violence victims.

There’s Still Hope Founder and Executive Director Rev. Debra Hopkins says her organization has helped 24 people since March, which is the number of people they have helped in a two-year period.

“It has really had me running all the corners of the city trying to find ways to raise money to help pay to provide food, shelter, providing clothing, if needed, bus passes to be able to look for work,” Hopkins says.

Before pandemic, the organization used to provide emergency shelter, which was for up to seven days.

“We found ways, including dipping into my own personal finances, to provide that extended transitional shelter to give them a peace of mind and not the fear of going back out on the streets,” Hopkins says.

The nonprofit also provides groceries, bus passes and resources, such as counseling and job training. The group also helps the clients in the program reach their goals.

Deshon Medley, who identifies as gay, is participating in the program.

He connected the organization after the hotel where he was staying at the time was deemed unsafe. Medley had also lost his job due to COVID-19 pandemic in March.

Since April, the organization has covered his stay at another hotel in Charlotte, bought his groceries, and offered other services to help him get back on his feet.

“I feel blessed, it feels good. I feel I have people on my side,” Medley says.

He now has a job and will be on his own soon.

“I’m just grateful for There’s Still Hope and even when I get on my feet, I’ll still be around,” Medley says.

Hopkins, a transwoman, who received help from an organization to get back on her feet when she was homeless years ago, said her mission is personal.

“What I discovered from my own personal experience, the struggle and the difficulty of transgender adults who found themselves living homeless and are hopping from one hotel or motel in the city, because one situation or another, that was important that we gave them the kind of transitional capability to be able to have a lifeline extended to them,” Hopkins says.

The group plans to host an event next month to help homeless people living in tent camps near the Uptown area.

If you would like to donate to this nonprofit organization, click here.