Hosea Helps may be forced to shut down

ATLANTA — The nonprofit organization Hosea Helps, formerly known as Hosea Feed the Hungry and Homeless, has been helping families in need for 45 years, but it may soon have to shut its doors.

The organization has been housed in a warehouse in southwest Atlanta for nearly three decades.

The building was sold to new owners, who sent a letter saying they are doubling the rent to $8,000 a month.

“It hit me in my stomach like somebody had punched me,” Hosea Helps CEO Elisabeth Omilami said.

They can't afford the new rent, so the organization has until July 1 to find a solution.

“I never thought it would happen to us,” Omilami said.

The group helps serve thousands of people every year on Thanksgiving, Christmas, Martin Luther King Jr. Day and Easter. They also pack boxes filled with food, baby formula and toiletries, which they hand out to hundreds of people each week.

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“My father’s goal is to help those who were hopeless,” Omilami said.

She took over the organization, which was started by her father, Hosea Williams, when he died in 2000.

Now the organization must get enough money for the new rent, move to another facility or shut down within the next six weeks.

“The worst-case scenario is more suffering, more poverty and less love,” Omilami said.

The group has set up a GoFundMe page for the community to make donations.

Cox Media Group