I was a tenant in one of their Second Chance house for over 18 months. A year ago I was diagnosed with kidney failure, and after that had a stroke. After my kidney failure I ended up having to pay rent twice in one month because they "LOST" my rent. In April I could no longer work. My rent was paid by various local churches. In October they received half of my rent from one local church, !ND was promised the other half by St. Vincent de Paul. Because my rent was late, I was evicted. CCJ evicted a sick woman, awaiting a disability determination, out of one of their houses, just 2 days before my 55th birthday, and 3 days before our first winter snow (which we had been warned about for over a week), to have to live on the streets. Remember, my rent was covered. Where is the COMPASSION or JUSTICE in that kind of treatment? They are not a non-profit, they want their money, no ifs, ands, or buts.
Unfortunately, CCJ has gone downhill over the past few years, due to poor management decisions. Instead of keeping its emergency winter shelter for the community, they tried to open free place to park cars and pitch tents in a residential neighborhood. After the community protested, they've purchased a run-down building for a wet shelter, where clients who have dropped out of sober living houses because they can't stay off drugs/alcohol can stay for $3 per night. The charity no longer helps working people with temporary financial problems stay housed, pay utility bills or fix a vehicle. Lots of feel-good programs like providing backpacks and Christmas gifts to kids, but no real lasting change for the community.
Review from Guidestar
I have been volunteering with Coalition for Compassion and Justice for 10 years. This is basically a volunteer organization with administrators to help organize and keep us on track. CCJ feeds about 150 disadvantaged people per day. The people who eat at CCJ are provided with a meal, sandwiches to take out, cans of donated food, monthly commodities, showers and vouchers to get donated clothing from the CCJ Thrift Store. Recently they provided over 1,000 school supplies and backpacks to Head Start children and Casa Children. This project was done in partnership with the Prescott United Methodist Church who provided vouchers for new shoes for these children. If you want a truly rewarding experience try volunteering for a day. You will want to be a regular volunteer as I have been!