Very soon, the frigid temperatures will be here and it is alarming to think what it must be like for homeless folks who are actually spending their nights outside.

Have you heard of the F.A.I.T.H. Foundation?

This organization was created to assist the homeless living out of doors in places so fetid dogs wouldn't go there.

Following a 10-year history in the field of assisting the homeless, it was found that often homeless individuals become caught in the red tape of social service system, making it impossible to gain access to a myriad of benefits which should be available to them.

Then came the birth of Faith Advocacy Impacting the Homeless (F.A.I.T.H.), which now needs our help because it is in peril for closure.

There's a boutique on 86 State Street in Hackensack, N.J. where the homeless go to hang out. It is not a shelter; it is a knickknack and discarded antique furniture store where the homeless find something to do other than walk the streets; they refinish chairs, fix jewelry, clean the premises, etc.

Robin Reilly, a retired successful interior decorator, runs the place. Unlike organizations that assist the homeless, hers doesn't get federal and state assistance. Reilly told me she may have to close, perhaps by October, if she can't afford the rent and utilities.

She had applied for a $60,000 grant from Bergen County that would have helped pay her rent and keep her operating indefinitely. But she was rejected flat, without any explanation. She does not receive any salary, and so neither do the "helping hands" – Junior (Eusebio), Phillip and Bill and also Darrell, of course. They work on the computer, write letters for some of the drop-ins, and make sure there's enough coffee for everyone, including me.

The boutique is open seven days a week and, on Sundays, I try driving over when my bum legs permit. As soon as they see my car, a few get up from the fence railings they sit on and rush over for a copy of the Filipino Reporter and it surprises me how much of our Filipino history they know. These homeless friends of mine, by the way, are now clean-cut and neat.

We retreat inside the boutique where Robin's corner office is situated. There are lounging chairs and coffee tables, newspapers, books and magazines to read. But when I visit, my friends trade stories with me (nonpolitical), like one man's son or daughter who just graduated from high school, the new landscaping job he's enjoying, or about the baby she didn't abort and learned to love.

Once very lonely people, they become happy when they have someone to listen to their heartbreaking stories and their struggle for rehabilitation.

There are a lot of success stories here and I see them making it back into society because they are treated with respect and dignity and especially love.

To them, Robin Reilly is more than an angel. They tell me she is God. I can see why.

Will the homeless lose F.A.I.T.H.?