Shelter Change Offers New Opportunities
Our Family Services and our predecessor organizations have provided emergency shelter for women and children since 1987.
Over those 26 years, the needs of our community and the research around how to best meet those needs has changed a great deal. In July, we transitioned away from the 14-bed shelter facility we have operated, but our commitment to providing immediate help to people in crisis through shelter services has not changed.
Our Family is now providing emergency shelter services using a research-based, best-practice model that puts homeless families directly into apartments of their own. Families stabilize in a setting that can become their long-term home.
Our goal is to move families as quickly as possible into an apartment where they will be able to remain, and provide time-limited subsidies and supports to help them stabilize - such as paying rent, paying overdue utility bills, assisting with food, providing resource coordination and/or case management to help with job searches and other basic needs.
The new model has been even more effective than we anticipated. "We are already seeing that clients are more motivated to increase their income to try and stay in their apartments," says Emergency Shelter Services Manager Melissa Benjamin. "The people we house seem to feel more autonomous and comfortable when they have a place of their own and don't have to deal with the additional stress that arises in a communal model."
She adds that by placing families in emergency apartments in the part of town that best meets their needs, "they are able to stay in communities where they are comfortable and children are able to remain in their schools" while working toward stability.
The number of families experiencing homelessness in Pima County has grown over the past four years. Though most manage to stay off the streets, and so may be less visible to the community than individuals experiencing homelessness, the need remains high. More than 100 homeless families used our emergency shelter services last year.
