Family Promise: A home for families
Desi’s mom got up the courage to leave a relationship that was harmful to her and her daughter, but she had nowhere to live and no income.
Jake and Trevor’s family had to leave the house they were renting because their landlord didn’t maintain the house and it was deemed not fit to live in. They had to leave quickly and had no place to go.
But both of these families found Family Promise in Crafton and members of churches who opened their hearts and doors to host children and parents who were experiencing homelessness.
While neither Desi’s mom nor Jake and Trevor’s family became “guests” at Family Promise in Washington, they very well could have because their stories are so similar to those shared by the 1,300 individuals from the 300 families served by Washington Family Shelter since its inception in 1985. Family Promise of Southwestern Pennsylvania has two locations, one at 297 E. Beau St., Washington, and one in Crafton, which started five years ago.
In 2012, the programs in Washington and Crafton served 33 families – 46 adults and 71 children, 40 of whom were 5 years old or younger.
Laura Vincenti, who became executive director of Family Promise of Southwestern Pennsylvania in July 2010, sadly noted that children are the new faces of homelessness in America. “More than 40 percent of the homeless population is made up of families, and one out of every 50 American children experience homelessness each year,” she said.
Most homeless shelters serve only single men or single women or only women with children, but Family Promise shelters the vastly underserved segment of the homeless population, including two-parent families, single fathers with children, parents with teenagers and single mothers with their children.
Family Promise, formerly called Interfaith Hospitality Network, is a national movement with more than 180 affiliates across the country. More than 6,000 churches and more than 135,000 volunteers are doing hands-on ministry work and enabling children and their families experiencing homelessness to regain their housing, their independence and their dignity.
“Most of the families we see have lost their housing because they lost their jobs, or there has been a breakup in a marriage,” Vincenti said. “We are seeing more families doing what they are supposed to be doing – paying rent – but they get caught with a landlord who doesn’t maintain the property,” she said.
Vincenti said families can stay for 60 days in the program. “But we recognize it always does not come together for families in that period. We will do a review, and if the family is doing what they are supposed to do we have the ability to extend the stay.”
At its heart, Family Promise is a partnership of church congregations. Family Promise of SWPA has 40 churches actively participating in the program, either as a host or support church. There are 15 participating churches in Washington County.
Vincenti and Marlene Day, the program coordinator for the Washington center since 2011, agree that volunteers are the backbone of the program.
The network consists of hosting congregations, which provide space for up to four families, typically 14 individuals, mostly children, to stay for a week at a time. A host congregation will host five to six weeks out of the year.
During the day, families stay at the day centers, where Family Promise staff works intensively with them to find housing and employment and to move to self-sufficiency.
Church volunteers pick up the families at the end of the day at the centers and drive them to the hosting church. The families are returned to the day centers the next morning. Volunteers cook meals, serve as evening hosts and spend the night.
Some families just don’t make it, Vincenti said, but it is a low percentage. “In our Washington program last year, we had a 100 percent success rate. Everyone went into housing or went to live with a family member,” she said.
Vincenti said the families served have nowhere else to go because they frequently come from generations of renters. “Here is mom and dad with five children, and grandmother would like to help but she lives in a one-bedroom apartment,” Vincenti said. “It’s hard for volunteers to grasp the concept of not having anywhere to go.”
Guidelines for admission into the program include a completion of a criminal background screen, no substance abuse, no untreated mental health issues and no active domestic violence. “We cannot serve families fleeing an active domestic violence situation because we cannot keep them safe,” Vincenti said.
Vincenti shared two comments received from former guests.
One wrote, “When we had a bad day, we knew we would have a friendly place to come ‘home’ to. We cannot thank you enough for that.”
Another wrote, “All I needed was someone out there to have a little bit of faith and trust in me, and thank God these doors opened. IHN has given me a chance to face life and not run.”