Gulf Coast Homeless Coalition

Background

The Gulf Coast Homeless Coalition’s structure is unclear. It was formed in 2000 by Community Builders, a program of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development that seeds poverty-relief organizations, to oversee the HUD’s Continuum of Care program in the region. ³ As of October 2025, the Coalition did not have a website or public tax return records. The Coalition also does not have a clear leadership structure, with at least three individuals listed as the group’s president simultaneously from different sources. However, the HUD lists the Coalition as a recipient of grant funding, at least in 2008. ^{1 2 4}

The Coalition’s members include the Children’s Center, ⁵ the Texas Homeless Network, ⁶ and the Chosen Ones Outreach Ministries. ^{1 2}

Activities

The Gulf Coast Homeless Coalition operates programs in accordance with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Continuum of Care program in the Greater Galveston region. COC is an initiative of HUD to combat homelessness through donations to nonprofits in specific geographic areas, primarily to provide and subsidize housing for low-income individuals. ^{7 6 4}

The Coalition conducts annual Point-in-Time operations, which counts the homeless population in or near shelters in a single night to estimate the local homeless population. These counts are done on behalf of the Texas Homeless Network and other Coalition members. HUD requires its CoC grant recipients to abide by certain rules, including performing Point-in-Time counts. For instance, in 2021, the Coalition’s Point-in-Time count estimated a homeless population of 127 in the greater Galveston region. ^{7 6}

The Coalition operates the Homeless Management Information System (HMIS) in the Greater Galveston area. HMIS is a data-collection project to track the level of homelessness in a geographic region mandated by the HUD’s CoC program. ⁴

The Coalition coordinates with the government of League City, a suburb of Galveston, on its homelessness programs. ⁸

In 2021, the Coalition wrote an op-ed for the Galveston Daily News advocating for the City of Galveston and the Galveston Police Department to encourage a proposed program to form a response division tasked with arresting mentally ill individuals without putting them in jail. ⁹

Financials

The Gulf Coast Homeless Coalition is a component of Chosen Ones Outreach Ministries and therefore does not have independent reports of its finances. According to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s records, the HUD has granted funds specifically to the Coalition to operate its programs. For instance, in 2008, the HUD granted over $180,000 for two Homeless Management Information System operations. ⁴

Leadership

Online, there are records of multiple individuals working as the president of the Gulf Coast Homeless Coalition simultaneously, and it is not clear how or if their tenures overlap. According to her LinkedIn, Mercedes Cardenas has worked as the president of the Gulf Coast Homeless Coalition since September 2020. Since 2016, Cardenas has also worked as the assistant executive director and director of veterans programs at the Chosen Ones Outreach Ministries. From 2003 to 2023, Cardenas worked at Professional Contract Services, a nonprofit that provides poverty-relief services and employment support to veterans and disabled individuals. ¹⁰

According to her LinkedIn, Marsha Wilson Rappaport worked as the president and chairwoman of the Coalition from 2021 to 2024. Rappaport has served as the CEO of Isle Scribe Productions, a theater company, for decades. Earlier, she worked for the Children’s Center, a member of the Coalition. ^{11 10}

According to the website of the Chosen Ones Outreach Ministries, Edward Lawson III is the president of the Coalition. He works as the operations director of Chosen Ones Outreach Ministries and as liaison to the Homeless Gulf Coast Center board of trustees. ¹²