12/04/2025
12/4/2025
Dear Governor Josh Shapiro, Mayor Eddie Moran and other Officials:
We are reaching out to respectfully request a formal recommendation letter supporting We Agape You, Inc.’s Flagship Program—our initiative to convert Reading’s blighted and condemned properties into safe housing, mental-health stabilization units, and workforce-development hubs for veterans, low-income families, youth, and individuals in crisis.
This recommendation will help us secure angel and impact investor funding (up to $1,000,000) to “Make Reading Beautiful Again” through this transformative community program.
About We Agape You
We Agape You, Inc. is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit with a 14-year history of providing life-stabilizing services to vulnerable individuals. Our work includes veterans, low-income families, youth at risk, individuals struggling with mental-health challenges, and those experiencing homelessness. We maintain a 100% success rate in preventing su***de among the veterans we directly serve, and we are now expanding that proven model to meet the needs of the wider community.
Across Pennsylvania, the crisis is undeniable:
26 veteran su***des every day
8 youth su***des daily
Growing mental-health instability among adults and families
Severe blight, trafficking, addiction, and violent crime in Reading
There are 14.9 million vacant homes in America—yet HUD’s 2025 data shows merely 771,000 people experiencing homelessness. We have nearly twenty empty homes for every one person without a place to live!
Billions continue to flow into temporary shelters and fragmented programs with little long-term impact. The system is broken, and repeating the same model has produced the same tragic outcomes for decades.
Our Flagship Program breaks the cycle.
We transform abandoned, condemned, and blighted properties into safe, rehabilitated spaces that serve the community:
✔ Long-term housing units
✔ Mental-health counseling & crisis stabilization
✔ Employment & workforce training
✔ Youth intervention & family support
✔ Neighborhood safety and crime-reduction
✔ Veteran & civilian su***de-prevention
✔ Community revitalization
This is not temporary relief—this is community transformation.
We are especially grateful to Walmart Corporate for allowing us to fundraise outside their stores. Those funds allow us to provide essential second medical opinions and accurate diagnoses for individuals—veterans and civilians—who have been overmedicated or misdiagnosed, often leaving them unable to work, stabilize, or maintain housing. In my book, Breaking Chains: Veteran Su***de Prevention of 26 Per Day (https://a.co/d/aA9saIo), I detail how this same medical negligence happened to me personally, and to countless veterans we have served. Nationwide, more than 795,000 Americans are permanently disabled or die each year due to medical misdiagnosis—so is it any wonder that so many vulnerable individuals spiral into crisis when the system designed to help them instead harms them?
Our upcoming one-stop service center brings everything under one roof: medical guidance, mental-health services, employment assistance, and housing support. Currently, these services are scattered across disconnected agencies that leave people falling through the cracks. Our unified model ensures continuity, stability, and long-term success.
Why We Need Your Recommendation
We recently won an appeal with the Pennsylvania Office of Open Records, requiring the City of Reading to release its condemned-property list. Under 26 Pa. C.S.A. § 310, municipalities can donate condemned or abandoned properties to nonprofits to serve the public good. With your support, we can move more quickly to:
secure investor funding,
acquire property,
eliminate blight,
reduce crime,
and stabilize families and individuals in crisis.
Your recommendation letter will significantly strengthen our position as we work with angel and impact investors willing to invest up to $1,000,000 to launch and scale this statewide model.
Additional Resources for Context
City of Reading Certified Blighted Property List:
https://www.readingpa.gov/certified-blighted-properties
Recent Berks County Homelessness PIT Count:
https://www.wfmz.com/news/area/berks/annual-assessment-reveals-scope-of-homelessness-problem-in-berks-county/article_6eac3c77-d6fd-4658-8855-d174a74ae87f.html
Attached for your review are the supporting documents that demonstrate both our nonprofit status and the statewide recognition of our work. These include: our 501(c)(3) determination letter, the Appeal Decision from the Pennsylvania Office of Open Records confirming our right to obtain the City of Reading’s condemned-property lists, a letter from Governor Josh Shapiro’s Office advising our organization to pursue these efforts through local-level authorities, and a formal recognition letter from Governor Shapiro acknowledging the work of our new business, Athletes IQ Institute, which exists to prevent youth su***de by providing academic support, athletic development, and mental-health resources to young people across Pennsylvania. These documents collectively validate the legitimacy, urgency, and community necessity of our proposed Flagship Program.
Thank you for considering this request and for supporting our mission to make Reading a safer, healthier, and more beautiful place for every resident—veteran and civilian alike. The City of Reading was once a proud industrial powerhouse and the outlet capital of the country, drawing families, workers, and businesses from across the nation. Our community remembers that former glory. With your support, we can help Reading rise again—restored, revitalized, and rebuilt into the strong, thriving city it was always meant to be.
With gratitude,
Randy Simmons
President, We Agape You, Inc.
484-388-1328 | www.weagapeyouvsp.org
Attached:
– Letters from Governor Josh Shapiro
– Confirmation of 501(c)(3) status
– Appeals to the Office of Open Records
--
Randolph Simmons, President
We Agape You, Inc
www.weagapeyou.org
484-240-9036
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