BATON ROUGE -- Saturday afternoon, a Baton Rouge nonprofit and several faith organizations came together to help the homeless ahead of Christmas this week.

Voices of Virtue held its Holidays H.O.P.E for the Homeless event, where volunteers provided food, clothing, and even haircuts. Santa Claus also showed up to give out toys to kids.

'We as a ministry are trying to reach out and create an environment and a safe place for the homeless people to go to," Chris Altazan with In His Honor Ministries said.

Altazan says that homelessness in the area has become rampant. 2025 state data shows that each night, around 400 people in Baton Rouge are homeless. About half of them don't have shelter.

Voices of Virtue founder Cheryl Richard was homeless over a decade ago.

"Even if we're going through tough times, we may not have enough money to pay that bill, but guess what? You still have a shelter. You're still able to turn that key and walk in that door. These people out here are unfortunate to do that," Richard said.

According to the National Alliance to End Homelessness, in 2024, around 3,500 people in Louisiana didn't have a permanent place to live.

Point-in-time data from the Louisiana Balance of State Continuum of Care indicate that homelessness has increased by approximately 25% over the last two years.

"I was a college graduate, I've never been on drugs or alcohol, I didn't have any family problems, but it takes just one bad situation, and I was in between jobs. Next thing I knew, I was getting behind on my rent," Chermalita Lafayette said about being homeless from 2014 until 2020.

Lafayette said being able to share her story allows her to connect with people experiencing homelessness.

"You never know how you are going to impact somebody else through your story, and that's the thing that kept me going, so it feels great to be able to encourage people and make a difference in someone's life," Lafayette said.

Altazan says In His Honor Ministries will hold around five or six homeless outreach events in 2026.

"Hopefully, by us giving back and allowing people to feel dignity and a sense of respect. That it's not just an urgent thing that they don't have at this time of the year that we're trying to make their life a little bit fuller," Altazan said.