We are dreaming of building a new Family Stabilization Neigh

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Families in poverty face daily challenges in meeting basic needs, including substandard housing, hunger, homelessness, inadequate childcare and unsafe neighborhoods.  Families in poverty struggle to pay bills, to navigate the medical and mental health systems to get the help their family needs, they are limited by bad debt, they feel stuck in low-paying jobs. The fastest growing segment of the homeless population in Erie County is families.  

Family Promise of WNY is very good at working alongside families to help them stabilize.  We do the basics, like making sure everyone has shoes that fit, a cell phone that works and all their identifying documents.  And we do the big things, like removing bad debt and helping families build good credit, working with teens on paths to independence and helping families find jobs that promote upward mobility. 

The need is great and we want to help more.  We have outgrown our current space and are seeking to expand our services in a larger facility.

We work with families and 75% of the people we serve are children.  We serve all kinds of families, no matter if they are led by single moms, single dads, two-parent families or are multi-generational. 

Our clients are referred to us by different service providers, such as the Erie County Department of Social Services, Belmont Housing and Say Yes Buffalo.  We also will prioritize our resources to assist the neighborhood we are located in, working closely with community leaders, church leaders and residents to offer direct housing assistance to that neighborhood.  We accept self-referrals for our Eviction Prevention program.

We are a small-scale program by design.  Over half of our work is done out in the community, often in the homes of the families we work with.  The only on-site program is our temporary housing program, which can accommodate 10 families or up to 50 people at a time - almost 40 of whom are children.

To protect the children in our program, the following people CANNOT be placed in our temporary housing program and must be placed at other facilities that are designed to accommodate their unique needs:

• single adults
• children without parents
• people seeking legal status in this country
• people with untreated mental health conditions
• people with untreated substance abuse disorder
• people with a violent criminal background
• people fleeing an active domestic violence situation
• sex offenders

We staff our facility 24/7, meaning we are always awake and alert and will provide a level of vigilance to any neighborhood we are in.

We understand homeowners are worried about their property values.  Our research shows that small projects of 50 or less people like the one we are proposing do not impact property values because they lack density.  Nonetheless, we are seeking to locate our facility at some distance from homeowners to reduce impact.  For discretion, we will not have signage on the front of our building - it will just look like new development coming to the area. 

We strive to be good neighbors!  We will bring the following benefits to our new community:

• Priority for our Eviction Prevention and Stabilization programs - we are creating a neighborhood center and will give priority to the community leaders, church leaders and residents located around our facility for accessing assistance in order to stay safe and stay housed. 
• Community Space - we are incorporating a community meeting room in our facility design to serve as a hub for community members to gather.
• Jobs - We are expanding and we will be hiring.  
• Summer Camp - we have many years of experiencing running a summer camp for the children we work with and, as a neighborhood center, we plan to extend this opportunity to the children in our new neighborhood.
• New Building - We are projecting our project will add close to $10 million of value to the neighborhood. 
• Give-Aways and Community Celebrations- We will host different community giveaways throughout the year, including books and school supplies, as well as through annual summer celebrations focused on bringing families together. 
• Community clothing closet - we plan on opening a free family community clothing closet.