The costs of poverty – and the solutions we’re working on
This is a great video from The Catholic Campaign for Human Development, illustrating powerfully the struggles of those who are in poverty. Here at Helping Hand House, we’re committed to preventing and ending family homelessness - equipping parents and their children to escape poverty through education, financial management, and careers that will support their families.
The premise we work under? No family who goes through our programs should ever be homeless again. Search through our website or come to a House Warming Tour and learn more about our unique and innovative solutions to family homelessness, eradicating poverty one family at a time, breaking cycles for the generation to come.
No family should ever be homeless. We’re working to make it that way.
Pierce County consolodating departments
Not sure what the impact will be on local organizations like ours, but greater efficiency is a great thing!
Pierce County to consolidate departments (Tacoma News Tribune)
Pierce County will consolidate its community services and human services departments as it tries to save money and streamline services.
County Executive Pat McCarthy announced the consolidation this morning.
“We can set up a system that delivers better outcomes, helping more citizens who need our assistance,” McCarthy said in a statement announcing the move. She notified employees in both departments late last week.
The county’s human services department includes services like chemical dependency, mental health and long-term care. Community services covers everything from arts and tourism to homeless assistance and low-income housing.
For several months Deputy Executive Kevin Phelps has led a group studying a possible consolidation of the departments. The group concluded that combining the departments will result in a more effective delivery of services.
Many questions remain to be answered. Among them: how much money, if any, will be saved. The team will spend the next few months creating a detailed implementation plan.
You can view its recommendations to the executive here.
The consolidation of human and community services might be the first phase of a major consolidation of county government. McCarthy ran for executive two years ago on a pledge to improve customer service and find efficiencies in county government.
In addition, the County Council has asked McCarthy to study combining the planning and public works departments. It also has asked the executive to study combining human resources, budget and finance, facilities, risk management and information technology into a new “general services division.”
Reports on those possible consolidations are expected this fall.
As job losses increase, more families looking for a place to sleep at night…
Anyone else confused about whether America is gaining or losing jobs? The newspapers have conflicting articles in the very same issues sometimes…what we know from Pierce County, however, is that more families are on the edge – and off the edge – than has happened in a very long time. The result of this? Family homelessness increases, and with it, calls for help. If you’ve ever answered a call from someone who needs a safe place for their 9 year old daughter to sleep at night, rather than a tent or a car in the WalMart parking lot…it’s absolutely heartbreaking, all the moreso when you have no good news about an open home. People are stepping up all around the County in this time – South Hill Rotary is raising money for a duplex that will house 8+ families a year in our Emergency Housing program (more on this in a blog posting to come).
But the community needs more help – if you want to step in and play a role, click here to check out volunteer opportunities, or join us for a House Warming Tour.
Tough times, folks.
$70,000 more to help families in crisis – thank you Paul G. Allen Family Foundation!
This Puyallup Herald article features Helping Hand House and our partnership with the Paul G. Allen Family Foundation. Enjoy! (or read it here)
Puyallup-area homeless advocates get $70,000
Paul Allen Foundation grant should help about 125 families this year
Neil Pierson/of The Herald
Published: February 3rd, 2010 06:00 AMA four-month-long waiting game concluded happily for Puyallup’s Helping Hand House on Jan. 26 when it received a $70,000 grant from the Paul G. Allen Family Foundation.
Helping Hand House, which has been assisting homeless families throughout East Pierce County for the past 25 years, was one of 66 non-profit groups in the Pacific Northwest to receive an Allen Foundation grant. The foundation, started by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen and his sister, Jo Lynn Allen, is donating $4.6 million this year, much of it to groups that assist low-income individuals and families.
Helping Hand House Executive Director Nola Renz said last week that the grant should help about 125 area families during the next year.
“The money will be used in our homeless prevention programs to assist more families who are at risk of eviction or utility shut off,” Renz said.Receiving a grant from the Allen Foundation is a tough task, Renz explained, because only certain organizations are invited to apply. Helping Hand House applied for its grant last fall after meeting and talking with foundation officials.
Philanthropic efforts have been a part of the Allen Foundation’s mission for 20 years, said Bill Vesneski, the group’s evaluation, planning and research director. Helping Hand House stood out as a worthwhile cause because it’s widely known for excellent service, he said.
“They’ve had a very strong commitment as to measuring and monitoring their impact,” Vesneski said.
The money is especially welcome to Helping Hand House at a time when rising unemployment rates are putting more families at risk of living on the streets. The non-profit agency, which has helped more than 4,600 families in Puyallup, Sumner, South Hill and surrounding areas in the past 25 years, isn’t coming close to meeting demands. Two months ago, the group told Puyallup City Council members it had turned away more than 1,600 families during a six-month span of 2009.
“It has been an enormous challenge to continue to serve more families,” Renz said. “There’s limited resources so we’re always turning families away. That’s the discouraging part.”
The Allen Foundation focuses on a number of opportunities in its gifts, including community arts and music programs, youth education classes and job skill development courses.
The foundation has shifted its priorities to focus on victims of the national recession, Visneski said, and more groups like Helping Hand House are on the slate for grants in 2011.
“The goal is to kind of get the money into emergency relief, to get the money where it’s needed,” Visneski said. “We wanted to make sure we were doing work in Pierce County.”
Helping Hand House prides itself on being a lasting solution to homelessness because families who seek transitional housing opportunities learn to be financially sound and gain employment skills. The organization estimated at least three of four families that complete a transitional housing program don’t become homeless again.
“The exciting thing is that when families leave us they have a permanent solution,” Renz said. “They go into a situation where they have a home and a living-wage job.”
