A decision by the cash-strapped Hospitality House of Charlotte to start charging for its hospitality has prompted the Leon Levine Foundation to step forward with a $25,000 grant.

The money comes in the form of a community challenge, and seeks a dollar-for-dollar match from donors.

Tom Lawrence, executive director of the Levine Foundation, said the grant is meant to show support for the charity's mission, which is to provide affordable lodging for families who are forced to stay in Charlotte due to the hospitalization of a loved one. To date, it has helped 40,000 guests from 49 states and 35 countries.

Hospitality House, located across from Carolinas Medical Center, performed that service at no charge for 25 years. However, that changed last summer, when the economic downturn prompted a drop in donations, and the charity adopted a $40-per-night fee.

All money raised through the Levine challenge will go to a Guest Assistance Program started this summer, to ease the cost burden for struggling families.

On Monday, US Airways became the first company to step forward with matching dollars: It presented Hospitality House with a check for $7,000, along with $3,000 in US Airways gift cards. The charity has also received $5,000 in matching money from Susan and Marshall Larsen, who co-chaired the campaign to build a new Hospitality House in 2008.

Kimberly Melton, executive director of the house, says the grant comes at a time when the charity is housing 225 people a month, with an average stay of five days.

"We were made aware from hospital personnel that some families just couldn't pay, and that's hard for us to hear," says Melton, noting it was one of the few hospitality houses nationally that wasn't charging a fee.

"People sleep in cars, or they literally sleep in the waiting room and live on food from vending machines."

If the challenge from Family Dollar founder Leon Levine and his wife, Sandra, is met by the community, the resulting $50,000 will cover 833 nights for needy families. That's a big help to a small charity with an annual budget of only $439,000, Melton says.

An example of the people who'll be helped is Mary Santos of Knoxville, Tenn., who was forced to rush to Charlotte in June after her 49-year-old brother, Gary Horner, suffered a critical brain injury when he was struck by a hit-and-run driver in Conover.

Santos stayed at Hospitality House for nearly three months, before she checked out Sept. 12.

"Hospitality House was one of a million blessings we found in Charlotte," she says.

"My job ran out the day before this happened, and I had $13 in my pocket after paying off my bills in advance. When staying here became unaffordable, I was able to get help through the Guest Assistance Program and they were so gracious about it."

Her brother not only survived, she says, but he's been discharged to a rehabilitation center near Knoxville.

Janice Swinton of Spartanburg, S.C., has been at the house since Sept. 7, while her husband is being treated for pancreatic cancer. She expects he'll be discharged today.

"Every community should have one of these," she says. "I've been called at 1 a.m. because my husband was upset and afraid he was going to die, and Hospitality House is right across the street. I was just a phone call away."