The Downtown Safety Alliance made its largest distribution to date from its Coins for a Cause program on Wednesday.

During the 2019 calendar year, area residents and visitors donated $867.03 to the Coins for a Cause program, either in the donation boxes located in businesses throughout the downtown or the collection boxes that were added to some lightposts along Central Avenue.

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The program encourages people to put their spare change into the donation boxes instead of giving money to panhandlers. The funds collected are then distributed to agencies that provide direct services to homeless individuals or provide other safety programs in the downtown.

This year’s recipient is the St. Vincent de Paul’s Angel Services Center.

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The center located at 426 Central Ave. W. is open 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. and provides a place for the homeless to get a shower, clothing for job interviews, food, minor medical attention and social connection, according to Deb Kottel, SVP’s executive director.

“You have to feel human and part of that is being part of a community that sees you as human,” Kottel said.

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She said the funds will support the Angel Services Center’s ongoing costs for utilities, shampoo, hygiene products, clothing, food and more. She said community members are welcome to donate those items as well and they have a need for feminine hygiene products.

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She told members of the Downtown Development Partnership on Wednesday that elderly females is a fast growing homeless population in Great Falls.

Kottel said the center typically sees 40-50 homeless people daily.

She said the center provides those basic services and SVP also has transitional housing for homeless veterans but that the community lacks permanent supportive housing for those who find themselves homeless due to addiction or other behavioral or mental health issues.

Coins for a Cause started in Great Falls in 2012 with collection buckets at businesses around town for shoppers to drop their spare change instead of giving it to panhandlers downtown. The boxes on lightposts were added in 2018.

The funds collected in the Coins for a Cause boxes are pooled annually and donated to an organization that provides services to the homeless and transient population.

Past recipients were:

• 2013: $509.96 to the Great Falls Rescue Mission;
• 2014: $522.07 to the YWCA;
• 2015: $537.45 to Opportunities, Inc.;
• 2016: $558.42 to the Grace Home;
• 2017: $348.63 to the Great Falls Police Department Volunteer Program;
• 2018: $485.22 to Family Promise