Have you ever thought what you would do if you woke up one morning and suddenly you did not have a home? Where would you go? What impact would it have on your children? What would you do with your belongings? What if every number you called for help turned you away due to a waiting list? That is the situation that exists today in Palm Beach County. Yes, homelessness in Palm Beach County.
During 5 months in 2011, Family Promise (FP) received 209 requests for shelter from families experiencing homeless. That was a 100% increase from the same time period in 2010. The average length of stay has also increased from 45 to 90+ days. Resources to support homeless families in Palm Beach County are scarce and Family Promise of SPBC is the only shelter in the southern part of the county. The need for a safe place to shelter families is staggering. Family Promise receives daily calls from families with young children who are living in cars, parks, and even the Tri-Rail station!
FP targets homeless families with young children. Typically, half of their clients are children under age 6. In the morning, guests are picked up by a Family Promise van and taken to another site used as a Day Center. At the Day Center during the day, guests can shower, care for pre-school children and seek housing and employment. Public school children are bused from the Day Center to their public school each weekday morning. A staff member of Family Promise is at the Day Center to assist the adults in the family to find permanent housing and, if needed, employment.
Even when families have successfully completed its program, located work, and found housing life’s challenges keeps them in a tenuous situation. Unexpected expenses can create a domino effect that places our families at risk of losing jobs and homes. Car repairs, medical bills, decreased work hours, and car insurance are a constant concern.
FP has no money in its budget to help “graduates” meet these kinds of expenses, and when it exhausts all its other sources of funds, HOT is there to stop these “graduates” from going back into the endless cycle of poverty. We only make grants when the breadwinner has found new employment and the dollars we give put the family back on their feet and all other sources have been exhausted.
We never know when we are going to get a call or receive an e-mail asking us for critical help. We would like our donors to designate $10,000 to our Family Promise Emergency Aid Fund to meet "emergencies" as they arise. Similar to RRJFS and the Caridad Center, a few hundred dollars in aid can often completely change the lives of the people you can help.