Living Hope Day Center

10/08/2026

This week, we are attending the national conference with CCDA - Christian Community Development Association. The theme for this conference is “Behold”.

Behold is an awakening, a holy invitation to pause, to look, and to truly perceive what God is stirring in our community.

Wow! I can’t imagine a better place to be, or a better message to hear at this time.

The past few weeks have been incredibly hard. The weight has been nearly unbearable. The disappointment in so many people and situations has pushed us deeper into lament than we would have ever imagined.

As we enter a season of pausing, looking, and truly perceiving what God is doing, we are compelled to rest and reflect, a respite of sorts. So, if we go silent for a short time, please know that it is with a very heavy heart. Lord, grant us peace in this season.

10/04/2026

Yesterday, an anonymous letter arrived at our home.

It was addressed personally to Tony and Christine and to Living Hope Day Center. There was no return address and no name. It was simply signed, “LOCAL RESIDENT.”

Living Hope will not be intimidated. But neither will we ignore what this represents.

We have watched assumptions being made about people before they ever walked through the door. We have heard homelessness repeatedly associated with crime, danger, addiction, and threats to children. And now, before Living Hope has welcomed a single person into the building, someone is already preparing to document our guests and build a case that their presence and our operation could constitute a legal nuisance.

That troubles me far more than the anonymous letter itself.

Because ultimately, this isn't about Christine and me.
It's about the people we serve.

Imagine being treated as a potential nuisance before anyone has even met you.

Imagine walking into a neighborhood knowing that someone may already be photographing you, documenting you, watching for something to report, and building a record simply because you walked through the doors of a homeless day center.

Our friends experiencing homelessness live with that kind of suspicion every day.

They are watched when they enter stores. They are moved along when they sit somewhere too long. Their presence is sometimes treated as a problem before their behavior ever becomes one.
And that is one of the reasons Living Hope ultimately decided that 10th and Dock was not the right location for us.

We did not change direction because an anonymous letter frightened us. Our decision had already been made before this letter arrived.

We changed direction because, as we listened and learned more about the neighborhood, we became increasingly concerned that we would be inviting an already vulnerable population into an environment where some people (not all, but enough) had decided what they thought of them before ever meeting them.

We will not knowingly invite our friends into a place where they are presumed to be a problem simply because they are homeless.

Our friends deserve better than that.

10/04/2026

If not here, then where?

It's a question we have found ourselves asking a lot lately.

But it isn't only a question for Living Hope.

Our unhoused neighbors are constantly being told where they cannot be. They can't sleep here. They can't stay there. They can't gather in this place or remain too long in another. Even our city has adopted what has commonly been referred to as an “anti-camping” ordinance restricting sleeping and camping on public property.

We understand that communities need rules and boundaries. We understand that businesses, neighborhoods, and public spaces all have legitimate concerns that deserve to be heard.

But somewhere in the middle of all of those concerns, we cannot lose sight of human dignity.

People experiencing homelessness are still people. They are our neighbors. They deserve to be treated with dignity and respect, and they need places where they are not simply told where they cannot be, but are welcomed into spaces where they can begin taking meaningful steps forward.

And for Living Hope, that raises another important question: Where can the work of helping them happen?

A day center is about much more than providing a meal, a restroom, or somewhere to get out of the weather.

It is a place where someone living on the streets can sit across from a case manager and begin working toward stability. Where they can meet with peer support specialists who understand addiction, recovery, mental health challenges, and the systems they are trying to navigate. Where they can connect with housing resources, benefits, identification, healthcare, employment opportunities, recovery resources, and other services that can be extraordinarily difficult to access while living on the streets.

It is also a place where relationships are built—where someone knows your name, knows your story, and is willing to walk alongside you as you begin taking the next steps forward.

We have spent a lot of time as a community talking about where people experiencing homelessness shouldn't be.

Maybe it's time for all of us to begin talking seriously about where they can be—and where the people trying to help them can do that work responsibly.

That work has to happen somewhere.

10/01/2026

After much prayer, careful consideration, and conversation, Living Hope has made the difficult decision not to move forward with the purchase of the property at 10th and Dock.

When we first considered this property, we saw a building that checked nearly every box for Living Hope. It was located along a largely commercial corridor, had the space and infrastructure we needed, and offered the possibility of establishing a permanent home for the work we are already doing.

What we did not fully understand at the time was the larger community surrounding that building.

We have learned from this experience.

We believe effective leadership means being willing to receive new information, evaluate it honestly, and, when necessary, have the courage to change direction. And so, we are changing direction.

This isn't the end of Living Hope, and it isn't the end of our pursuit of a permanent home.

We are going to take some time to listen, learn, seek wise counsel, and carefully evaluate what comes next. We don't want to simply find another building. We want to find the right place, the right model, and the right way forward for our Wilmington community as a whole.

Living Hope began because we believe every person deserves to be seen, known, and loved. That hasn't changed.

We are incredibly grateful to the individuals, churches, businesses, foundations, and community partners who have supported us throughout this process. We are also grateful to the neighbors who attended our meeting, wrote to us, called us, asked difficult questions, and shared their concerns. We may not have agreed on everything, but we were listening, and we heard you.

Our mission has not changed.

We will continue serving. We will continue praying. We will continue listening. And when the time is right, we will take the next step forward.

09/22/2026

Last night, we met with neighbors surrounding our proposed new location at 10th and Dock. More than 40 people attended, and while the conversation was not always easy, it was encouraging to see so many people who are deeply invested in their neighborhood and care about what happens in their community.

We also want to acknowledge that we could have handled parts of the meeting better.

We intentionally went into the meeting with some operational decisions still being developed. Our hope was to listen first and allow feedback from the neighborhood to help inform some of those decisions. What we failed to communicate clearly was that intention. Instead, at times it understandably came across as though we were unprepared or simply didn’t have answers. We take responsibility for that.

But we did what we came there to do: we listened.

We took a lot of notes. We heard concerns about safety, hours of operation, activity outside the building, communication with neighbors, and other aspects of how the day center may affect the surrounding area. Anytime you bring more than a few people together, there will naturally be different perspectives, and we won’t all see every issue the same way. But listening doesn’t require agreement on everything, and we want our neighbors to know that we heard what they had to say.

We understand that some neighbors intend to share their concerns with City Council tonight. We respect their right to do that, and we have intentionally chosen not to attend simply to counter what they may say. They deserve the opportunity to express their concerns in their own words.

Now it is our responsibility to take what we heard, process it thoughtfully with our board and team, and determine where that feedback should shape our operational plans.

Last night wasn’t perfect, and neither were we. We can own that. But listening to our neighbors was important, and we intend to learn from the experience as we continue moving forward.

09/20/2026

Can I just say GO GOD! Look at how much we have raised towards our new location. Every dollar counts, if you haven't donated towards our building fund please consider doing so. We are truly blown away by His goodness.

When we launched this campaign, our goal was to lease a building. Then Go… Living Hope Day Center needs your support for Help raise funds for our new location

09/19/2026

This Monday we will have a meeting for the surrounding neighbors that live near 10th street and Dock street. This meeting will give us an opportunity to help you understand who Living Hope is and what we do. This will also give you an opportunity to ask questions to us and others that have worked closely with the unhoused for many years. Please arrive ontime as we will start the meeting right at 6:30. Details to the location of the meeting are posted at 19 South 10th Street. We understand many of you have questions and this is the best way to answer them and hopefully give you peace of mind. Thank you!

09/16/2026

We are so excited to celebrate with our friends at the Salvation Army Center of Hope as they celebrate one year of serving in the Cape Fear region. Many of our friends who have come through Living Hope took the next step in the Center of Hope, which led to jobs and housing. We are humbled and grateful to be one part of an amazing network of services that see our friends take small and large next steps in their lives.

Thank you Center of Hope for all you have done and will do for years ahead!!

09/15/2026

Join us and watch the 10-minute video all about the history of Living Hope. Where we started and where we are going.

Join us and watch the 10-minute video all about the history of Livi… Living Hope Day Center needs your support for Learn more about the journey of Living Hope

09/14/2026

We earned the 2026 Platinum Seal of Transparency! Check out our Candid profile at https://app.candid.org/profile/15020172/living-hope-ilm-87-1371703