We want to open a second, small-scale family shelter!

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Family Promise of WNY is an emergency shelter for unhoused families in our community.  We provide temporary housing and wrap-around support as families work to find their way back home.   We are a New York State certified program and we've been serving this community for over 25 years.

We are certified as a family shelter by New York State.   We take placements directly from the Erie County Department of Social Services and serve all kinds of families, no matter if they are led by single moms,  single dads, two-parent families or are multi-generational. Parents/guardians just must have custody of at least one child.  75% of the people we serve are children.  Because we operate a small-scale shelter environment, the number of people living with us at any given time would never exceed 40. 

It is important for the community to know who we don't work with to understand better what we do.  We do NOT accept placements for:   

• 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

These people must be placed at other shelter facilities that are designed to accommodate their unique needs.

We strive to create an environment that is warm, comfortable and uplifting for the families we serve.  There is lots of color and light everywhere you look!  Every familiy gets their own room for privacy and parents can use our kitchen to cook for their kids.  Give us a call and schedule a tour at our 75 Hickory location to come see for yourself! 

The families who live in our shelter are already members of this community - they just need a little temporary support.  We work to help stabilize families quickly by meeting their basic needs such as food, clothing, critical documents and turning on cell phones.  We connect families to medical care, help parents find jobs, and from day 1 we are searching for safe and affordable housing.  As parents work our program, the kids catch the school bus, go to after-school programs and participate in the children's programming we offer in-house, such as weekly BINGO nights, movie nights and arts and crafts activities led by community volunteers.

Yes!  Because we work only with families, we have more specialized regulations that make us one of the safest shelters in the system.   We screen each family before intake to ensure that they are a good fit for our program.  In order to keep a safe environment for the children in our program, we cannot accommodate families struggling with active addiction, untreated mental health illness, violent criminal history, active domestic violence or who are registered sex offenders.  They must be placed at other shelter facilities.

We strive to be good neighbors!  First - we are small and child-focused.  You may notice things like more kids riding bikes or families walking with strollers.  We intend to build a brand-new, beautifully designed facility with funding from New York State that will bring value to your properties.  Our shelter facility will be carefully designed to integrate seamlessly with the surrounding buildings.  We staff our building 24/7, providing a level of vigilance to any neighborhood we are in.  And we have annual events for the families we serve which are open to our community!

Yes!   The average time a family spends living in our shelter is only about 3 months.  70% of the guests we serve successfully find housing!