2008 Annual Report Ready!
We are very excited about this year’s Annual Report – we encourage you to take a look and get a picture of the work that we’ve been up to in the last year!
Please click here to download the 2008 Annual Report as a pdf…
News Tribune article highlights 25 years at Helping Hand House
Wanted to point you a great article in the Tacoma News Tribune highlighting the lessons learned in 25 years of working to end homelessness in Pierce County. Attached below, check it out at the TNT here.
For 25 years, these helping hands have worked to end homelessness, a family at a time
KATHLEEN MERRYMAN; THE NEWS TRIBUNE
Last updated: June 3rd, 2009 12:15 AM (PDT)In a perfect world, 4,618 families would show up for this month’s 25th anniversary of Helping Hand House.A total of 12,554 moms, dads and kids would be there to tell how the Puyallup nonprofit helped them rebuild their lives after homelessness.
When Margie Addington founded Helping Hand House to serve families in East Pierce County, in 1984, she worked on her own with the backing of service clubs and grants.
The original idea was basic: Get families into housing. Expect them to find a job.
When Addington retired in 1997, Helping Hand House operated 11 homes on an annual budget of $165,000.
The annual budget is $1.9 million now. They operate 60 units, and every family has a case manager.
“They were one of the first organizations to shift their mission from ‘serving’ to ending and preventing homelessness,” said Troy Christensen, chairman of The Road Home leadership team. “They were the first organization to provide Housing First to the families in Pierce County.”
Kathy Doubikin knows about it first-hand. After a move and a divorce, she and her three sons ended up without a home, friends or family. In early 2008, Helping Hands had an opening.
“Having a place to go was a blessing,” the Puyallup resident said. “Having someone to listen to, care for and encourage me to take the steps necessary to start saving and rebuilding was a blessing.”
She began taking classes on budgeting, home and car repairs, job searches, cooking, canning. She got her sons enrolled in school. She opened a savings account. She found three part-time jobs, one of which developed into a full-time managerial position.
“I’m at the point of graduating out this Christmas,” she said.
“They back you up,” Doubikin said. “They listen to you.”
Empathy for the homeless goes right to the top of the Helping Hands hierarchy – all the way to Nola Renz, the executive director who replaced Addington 12 years ago.
Renz grew up in a family that bounced in and out of housing from state to state in the Northern Plains.
“The earliest recollection I have of it was when I was about 4,” she said. “We were sleeping in our car. I didn’t know we were homeless. We were camping.”
There were no shelters then, no food banks. The family had burned through the kindness of relatives. Renz attended nearly two dozen schools, none of which had help for homeless students.
“The schools wouldn’t let you take books home,” she said. “You couldn’t check out library books.”
Renz once took 50 cents from the family’s money jar to buy school supplies. Her father met her at the door with a switch.
“That’s why it is so important to me that our children are fully equipped for school,” she said. “That is huge.”
“We see ourselves ending homelessness, not just for grown-ups, but for the next generation,” said Marion Hogan, Helping Hand House’s deputy development director.
Renz graduated from high school, married, had three children and fled a dangerous relationship. She struggled, found a decent job, then another, and put herself through college.
Today Renz tells her clients that if she could work and go to school at the same time, they can, too.
And they do.
“If our parents are in school, they have to work 20 hours a week, too.” Hogan said.
They know they are the lucky ones.
Last month, more than 300 families called for help that would keep them from losing their homes.
“We could serve 18,” Renz said.
Another 400 people called needing homes.
“That’s up from 50 a month” last year, she said. “We can serve four, or five, tops. Pretty depressing, huh?”
You bet it is, especially since Helping Hand House has shown us how to do better.
Kathleen Merryman: 253-597-8677
kathleen.merryman@thenewstribune.com
What: 25th anniversary celebration for Helping Hand House
When: June 11, 3 to 7 p.m.
Where: Pioneer Park pavilion, downtown Puyallup
Originally published: June 3rd, 2009 12:15 AM (PDT)
How do people become homeless?
A few years ago I was having lunch at a spa and a woman asked to join me. Steamed and soaked into blissful states and wrapped in soft terry robes, we chatted while we ate. She was a physician and I worked for a non-profit. As I shared what my work was like, she asked me a question that shocked me, “How do people become homeless?” When I explained, of course she caught on quickly and I reminded myself how normal it is to be blind to issues that do not confront us directly and how difficult it is to imagine life situations so different from those we experience. Neither she nor anyone close to her had ever been homeless.
Even in this prolonged recession when job losses and foreclosures dominate the news, the facts of life for low income Americans are probably still not clear to most of us. Nationwide, many people in the workforce regularly spend more than 50% of their income on their housing, making them extremely vulnerable and ‘just a paycheck’ away from homelessness. For example, in Pierce County, Washington where Helping Hand House is located, rental vacancies fell to 4.3 percent in February, nearly 2 percentage points lower than the historical average of 6 percent. In the summer quarter of 2008 the cost of rentals rose 2.3 percent and is expected to rise another 6 or 7 points by this summer. (source: Central Puget Sound Real Estate Research Committee, v.59 n.2, p.46-47) When you pair higher rental costs and fewer units available with current unemployment figures, the chief reason for family homelessness becomes vividly clear.
Even when the economy is flush, workers at minimum wage still have to work 81 hours a week to afford the standard two-bedroom unit in Pierce County ($845) and 117 hours for a three-bedroom ($1231). The average income for renters is $11.70 an hour, making decent, safe housing still out of reach for so many families.
There was a time in our country when anyone who worked was pretty much guaranteed a safe, decent place to live. Let’s take a good look at the situation in our communities and do all we can to make that true once again.
