The highest level of the ladder of charity is to provide an individual with the means to support himself, to become self-sufficient, so that never again will he or she need to rely on the generosity of others to maintain his independence.
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If 1,000 members of a synagogue can’t get one homeless person off the streets, staying with them until they are financially and emotionally self-sufficient, how can we ever solve the problem of homelessness in America?
In 2018, Congregation Shearith Israel asked itself that question and decided to try a novel approach to a growing problem: take one person out of homelessness, permanently, by getting he or she whatever it takes – a job, transportation, a safe place to live, financial counseling – until that person can make it on their own. |
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Ladder Project client Kathy Walker on move-in day in January 2024 with her children Chris (top left), Calvin (bottom left) and Caroline.
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The approach had Jewish roots, Rabbi Adam Roffman told the congregant who brought him the idea, former Dallas Mayor Laura Miller: the Jewish philosopher Maimonides, 819 years ago, had created a ladder of charity, with the top rung of the ladder – the critical step – being a gift or loan that helped a person live independently. Hence the name for the synagogue’s new pilot program: The Ladder Project.
The pilot program soon morphed into an earnest mission: rescuing someone from the depths of poverty and despair to a place of financial independence and hope proved irresistible, and seven years later, the work continues.
To date, The Ladder Project has transitioned 45 men, women and children in 23 families out of homelessness; 78 percent of them still live independently, most in the apartments where they were originally placed. As of March 2025, the program had spent a total of $143,237 in Ladder Project donations – an average $3,183 per person – plus an additional $5,654 on nine families who were not selected for the program but needed emergency help.
The program is spearheaded by a 9-person Executive Committee of Shearith congregants who shepherd all the work: Miller, Mindy Fagin, Jeff Hoppenstein, Marsha Lev, Kevin Libby, Melanie Morris, Nonie Schwartz, Andrea Solka, and Harrian Stern.
The pilot program soon morphed into an earnest mission: rescuing someone from the depths of poverty and despair to a place of financial independence and hope proved irresistible, and seven years later, the work continues.
To date, The Ladder Project has transitioned 45 men, women and children in 23 families out of homelessness; 78 percent of them still live independently, most in the apartments where they were originally placed. As of March 2025, the program had spent a total of $143,237 in Ladder Project donations – an average $3,183 per person – plus an additional $5,654 on nine families who were not selected for the program but needed emergency help.
The program is spearheaded by a 9-person Executive Committee of Shearith congregants who shepherd all the work: Miller, Mindy Fagin, Jeff Hoppenstein, Marsha Lev, Kevin Libby, Melanie Morris, Nonie Schwartz, Andrea Solka, and Harrian Stern.
Laura Miller picks up Stanford Dixson at the Austin Street Shelter on moving day in 2022
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Referrals come to the group from a number of organizations: homeless shelters, Jewish Family Service, and word of mouth between the homeless themselves. Three criteria determine acceptance into the program: 1) willingness to work full-time (we will help find a job if he or she is unemployed); 2) absolute honesty (the team has heard it all before, there is no judgment, and mutual trust is key to success) and 3) no active substance abuse or chronic mental illness (committee members are not social workers or psychiatrists).
Upon accepting a client, the program immediately begins looking for a job tailored to that person’s experience through its jobs partners, including Presbyterian Hospital of Dallas, The Legacy Senior Communities, UT Southwestern Medical Center, Ben E. Keith, and Stevens Transport. These companies pay between $16-25/hour, with health insurance if the position is full-time; an offer letter of employment is the key to finding our clients an apartment. The Ladder Project pays all the up-front costs for housing – application fees, security deposits, first month’s rent, utility deposits, and renters insurance – and then fully furnishes the unit. When a client is picked up from the shelter on move-in morning, there is nothing he or she lacks in their new apartment by the end of that day. |
True, some people don't make it: the mission is to get the homeless jobs, housing, and financial advice – not control what they do once they have those things. But the program’s commitment to them is total until they are independent – including financial counseling whenever it’s needed – and the majority of successful clients stay in touch for advice, friendship, and emergency help.
Some examples:
Some examples:
Steve on his first evening in his new apartment
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In 2024, The Ladder Project got a call from Leland Burk, the new owner of a Preston Royal shopping center, where a 64-year-old man named Steve had been living in a back parking lot in his 1985 truck for three years. The man worked at the Oreck vacuum store 12 hours a week, making $12/hour repairing vacuum cleaners. Within 11 days of Leland’s call, the man had a new, $18/hour, full-time vacuum-repair job; had moved into a one-bedroom apartment ($895/month) that was fully furnished and equipped; and was driving a 2019 Kia hatchback that Leland had donated. The man was self-sufficient within two weeks of move-in, after which an LP volunteer helped him sell his old truck for $2,800 – seed money for a new savings account. Total spent to get him out of homelessness? $3,082.
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In early 2022, The Ladder Project took on the Saboor family, which had fled Afghanistan with the U.S. military but was subsequently left stranded in a motel in Dallas. Not only did the LP find the family jobs and an apartment, it worked successfully with Congressman Colin Allred’s office to bring the family’s two teenaged sons to Dallas. The boys had been accidentally left behind at the Kabul airport in 2021 when an airport gate closed prematurely amid chaos, and the boys found themselves on the wrong side of the gate. Despite the mother’s wails, the plane left without her sons. The Ladder Project was at DFW Airport in October 2024 when the boys were reunited with the family. Total spent on this family: $3,540
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The Larin Family arrives at DFW Airport from Ukraine in July 2024
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Last July, The Ladder Project sponsored the Larin Family family through the federal Uniting for Ukraine program. The family had fled their home in Eastern Ukraine during the first Russian invasion in 2014, after the father was beaten and arrested for refusing to pledge loyalty to Russia. They moved again in 2022 when Russia bombed their neighborhood in Kharkiv. Today, both parents have good jobs in Dallas, and the older of two sons is graduating high school and will attend UT-Dallas this fall. Total spent: $16,255. (This includes $2,500 for an immigration lawyer hired after President Trump declared he was suspending several federal immigration programs, including Uniting for Ukraine, putting the family in legal limbo, along with 240,000 other Ukrainians who entered the U.S. legally since 2022, all with federally approved financial sponsors.)
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Another UHaul day for The Ladder Project in 2022: Jeff and Josh Hoppenstein, Marsha Lev (left), and Sally Wolfish, z”l
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Some of our greatest achievements are a result of advocacy, not money. When we see our clients ignored, abused, or disrespected, we jump. We have successfully contested usurious pay day loans (one charged a $750 fee, plus interest, on a $300 loan). We sued a banking app (thanks to a pro bono lawyer) for allowing a client’s life savings to be repeatedly hacked with zero intention of restoring the funds (the company settled the lawsuit for the entire $9,500 plus attorney’s fees). We insisted that a local amusement park pay $30K to a parking lot striper – a father of four young boys – who was evicted from his apartment as a direct result of the park’s local contractor not paying him for six weeks of high-quality work.
But congregant donations are what has kept the program going over the years. We are also grateful for the significant donations of three non-congregants who believe in our model: local lawyer Lisa Blue Baron, $50,000; McKinney resident David Levey, $20,000; and the Mary Kay Ash Foundation, $15,000. Equally important to the success of our program are continued donations of furniture, job offers, financial counseling, and dental and medical services. |
And we always need your time - driving a client to the doctor or driver's license office, helping us on moving day, calling a debtor or non-responsive landlord as the client's advocate. We especially thank the congregants on our volunteer text thread, standing at the ready in case of client emergencies: Jeremy Basloe, Susan Ehrlich, Melanie Finkelstein, Harry Granoff, Ruth Hendelman, Jamie Pink, Ann Richman, Sharon Oran Shalet, and Susan Wisch.
We thank the congregation for the strong support this program has received over the past seven years. And we look forward, as ancient Biblical texts encourage us to do, to continue saving the world by saving one person at a time.
We thank the congregation for the strong support this program has received over the past seven years. And we look forward, as ancient Biblical texts encourage us to do, to continue saving the world by saving one person at a time.
You Can Help
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Donate HERE (Look under Discretionary Funds)
Or mail a personal check to the synagogue, 9401 Douglas Avenue, Dallas, Texas 75225 and write The Ladder Project on the memo line. Thank you to everyone who has already donated! Offer a living wage job. The key to transition to self-sufficiency is a higher paying job at a Living Wage of $15/hour. If you can help, email Laura Miller at [email protected]. |
Donate your time
If you would like to volunteer your time to help the homeless through The Ladder Project, please email LP Chair Laura Miller at [email protected]. If you’re not sure how you can help, don’t worry. We have plenty of opportunities. |