LEANDER, Texas — The need for financial assistance has more than doubled in just a few years.
That's why an organization that's been around for almost 40 years in Williamson County is now expanding to help more people in a bit of a different way.
"This huge space will be our drop-off area where we'll be taking clothes, household items and some furniture," said Tiesa Hollaway, the executive director at Hill County Community Ministries as she showed KVUE a warehouse space in Leander that will soon be a new thrift store.
"The idea with the thrift store is obviously to put money back out into the community," said Hollaway.
HCCM is known for its food pantry but, for the past few years, Hollaway has been wanting to expand to help people in another way.
"Almost everybody who walks through our door needs some sort of financial assistance," said Hollaway. "The moment somebody comes in to see us, then we have to send them out the door to go get financial."
Hollaway said they hope to make about $70,000 to $80,000 a month at the thrift store to help people with temporary needs like rent, utilities or fixing their car.
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"It's very challenging right now for them to get those additional services," said Hollaway.
While she said there are some organizations that already help with those things, they're not in western Williamson County.
"The resources are very limited," said Hollaway.
But she said the need is quickly growing.
In just three years, they've more than doubled the number of people they serve at the food pantry from about 4,000 families in 2015, to more than 9,000 last year.
Now she hopes they can be a one-stop shop.
"Instead of having to go to all these different places, everybody can invest in us, whether its time or money or both, and they can say we're going to send them to this one place that they can get as much help as they can possibly get," said Hollaway.
They hope to open the new thrift store on May 1.
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