There are many faces to the homeless, and that includes families with children.
But the Interfaith Hospitality Network of Seattle (IHNS) helps ease the pain by putting up entire families in churches such as the Magnolia Lutheran Church near the Village.
That's unusual, notes IHNS Communications Director Gary Davis. Normally, he said, families are split up - with fathers going to one shelter, mothers going to another and children staying with either the father or mother, depending on their sex and assuming the homeless shelters take kids in the first place. Most don't.
"We're the only agency we know of that keeps families together," Davis said. "There's good reason to do that; it makes things less scary (for children)."
The families live for one to two weeks at a time in tents set up inside the church buildings, and volunteers buy and cook food for the families. But there is a limit to the number of participants, said Barbara Helde, the program coordinator at Magnolia Lutheran. "There can't be more than four families, or a total of 14 people," she said.
Magnolia Lutheran was playing host to 12 homeless people until last week, when a family of five found permanent housing, Helde said. That happens a lot. Of the families that go through the program, 83 percent on average end up in permanent housing and land jobs with a "sustainable income," she said.
Last year the success rate was even better, according to the network's newsletter, which says that 93 percent of 31 families served at 23 churches in King and Snohomish counties moved on to jobs and permanent housing. The churches in the network include the Queen Anne Lutheran, the Queen Anne Presbyterian and the First Free Methodist in Queen Anne.
The families get a psychological boost in their efforts to move back to permanent housing, according to Betty Mueller, the network program coordinator at the participating Episcopal Church of the Ascension in Magnolia.
"The beauty of this program is there's counseling," Mueller said of a network program at a day center in the Prince of Peace Lutheran Church in Shoreline. Homeless families are taken by a program van to the day center, which also provides the families with laundry facilities, showers, computers, help writing resumes and telephones.
"They have their own voice mail so they can get messages," added Helde, who noted that the day center can also be used as an address for homeless families.
Allana Gunne, executive director of the IHNS, said the non-profit organization is part of New Jersey-based Family Promise group, which began in 1986 as the National Interfaith Hospitality Network.
The organization has spread to include 122 networks and 4,000 congregations in 35 states, according to the Family Promise Web site. The Seattle network operated on a budget of around $150,000 last year, which served more than 30 families, and funding is provided by a number of sources, including individuals and United Way, Gunne said.
That relatively lean operating budget is made possible by the work of volunteers and, frequently, the volunteers' children, Mueller said. According to IHNS figures, more than 700 volunteers currently take part in the program, and the organization has served 237 people in 80 families since January 2002. That includes providing 7,843 bed nights, along with 23,528 donated meals in that time. The average stay is 30 days.
Families end up in the IHNS program through different avenues, Davis said. "They're referred to us through all kinds of agencies that know we work with children," he explained.
However, not everyone is accepted. People with serious psychiatric, medical, legal or substance-abuse problems are turned away, according to Mueller. "So in some ways this is a sanitized group," she said.
Sanitized or not, there are common reasons people in the IHNS have ended up out on the streets. John, 50 and the married father of three, is an example. He didn't get an expected pension after he retired early, and his wife, Roxanne, 48, got hurt on the job and couldn't work any more.
Interviewed during a dinner of spicy Creole food prepared by a volunteer at Magnolia Lutheran, Roxanne spoke of the consequences of both her and John losing their jobs. "We lost our home after 11 years," she said.
It's been rough, John conceded. "Yeah, I've never been in this situation in my life." Being homeless has also been hard on their children, Roxanne added.
The couple's son, David, 15, denied he has been freaked out by being homeless and living in a tent inside a church. "I'm used to it," he said. "I go camping; I like it."
But while David and his siblings have been able to go to the same school they attended before the family lost their home, David has come in for some teasing. "They called me shelter boy," he frowned, "until I popped them in the mouth."
David's brother, 14-year-old Eli, said he likes the food and added that it's fun sleeping in a tent. "It feels like we're camping out," Eli said. Eli's sister, 11-year-old Jessica, has also taken living at a shelter in stride. "Since you get to meet new people, it turns out to be really fun," she grinned.
John said he is grateful for the program. "We know we'll have a roof over our head till we get out of here," he said. That shouldn't be much longer.
"My husband got a job two weeks ago, and I got a job today," said Roxanne last Friday. Their combined income comes to $26 an hour, added an obviously proud John.
For more information or to make a donation to the IHNS, call 363-3199.
Staff report Russ Zabel can be reached at rzabel@nwlink.com or 461-1309.[[In-content Ad]]
