After helping neighbors find housing solutions for more than 15 years, a crucial safety net in Thomasville has shut down. The center helped families pay for hotel stays, utilities, and housing for over 15 years before shutting d own in August due to funding challenges. More families are relying on motels for shelter, while funding cuts and competition make assistance harder to access. Watch the video below to hear from a person the center has helped. A safety net disappears: Community Training Outreach Center shuts down in ThomasvilleBROADCAST TRANSCRIPT:This center helped families keep the lights on, pay for hotel rooms, and avoid homelessness. Now it's shut down.I'm Layan Abu Tarboush your Thomasville neighborhood reporter finding out how funding shortages forced the Community Training Outreach Center to scale back and what that loss means for the community.Across Thomas County, more families are living in motels, overcrowded homes, or unsafe housing just trying to get by.Rent keeps rising, utilities aren't getting cheaper, and landlords are asking for three times the rent in income just to qualify.For more than 15 years, one of the key advocates helping families avoid these challenges or homelessness was Dr. Sharon Edwards, who ran the Community Training Outreach Center until funding shortages and competition forced the center to shut down."There's more than 400 nonprofit organizations in and around Thomasville, Thomas County that provide a plethora of services, but those that are providing services for the homeless community, for those that are precariously housed, for those that are sofa surfers or those where you have multiple families and single family dwellings, there are not a lot of resources available," said Edwards.That support made a real difference for people like Kimberly Adams, who says Edwards didn't just offer resources, she opened doors and helped create a path to stable housing."She's helped me in so many ways. Actually, this house that I'm staying in, she was the reason why I was able to move here. She talked with someone, and I actually stayed with her when I first moved back. Here, I stayed with her and her husband for about three months until this house was ready for me to move in," said Adams.Now, with fewer resources and higher housing costs, Edwards says the need is only growing and could double or even triple in the next few years, but she's not letting that stop her mission to help her community.Now, she's working from home, stretching every dollar she can, but admits she's often forced to turn people away."It's really heartbreaking when you're in this, not this business, but this is your ministry. This is a work that you do to realize you have to tell 25 of the 30 callers, we don't have the funds available. We're not able to help, or let me connect you with a partner agency and then that partner agency does not have funding or the funding has been cut because of policy or the funding has been cut," said Edwards.For now, families are being referred to groups like Thomas County CARES, the Thomasville Community Development Corporation, and a handful of churches still offering help, but Edwards can offer a lot more help if more there's funding."If funding was available, the sky is not the limit. She will go beyond," said Adams.Ms. Edwards says cities like Valdosta and Albany meet federal population requirements, so they receive housing funds directly.But here in Thomas County it's considered part of Georgia's Balance of State, which means funding has to go through the state and is much harder to get.If you need assistance or want to support her nonprofit, you can call 855-228-0032 or email her at [email protected], and she'll do her best to help.Want to see more local news? Visit the WTXL ABC 27 Website. Stay in touch with us anywhere, anytime.Like us on FacebookFollow us on Instagram and X. ...read more read less