Did You Know?

In a typical Interfaith Hospitality Network, half of the guests are children, most of whom are under six years of age.

Area congregations team up to serve homeless families

By David Kohn
Sun reporter

January 2, 2006
Baltimore-area homeless families will soon have a new option: 17 area religious congregations have combined forces to offer housing, food and support specifically designed for such families.

The group, the Baltimore Interfaith Hospitality Network, will house up to 14 people - usually two or three families - at seven area places of worship. The network includes Baptist, Catholic and Presbyterian churches, as well as a synagogue and a Baha'i temple. The congregations are in the city and in Baltimore County.

"This addresses a segment of the homeless population that isn't well-served by other services," said Jennifer Arnold, recruitment coordinator for the BIHN.

Arnold is a member of Ascension Evangelical Lutheran Church in Towson, which is involved in the effort. For the past two years she has been part of a group of about 10 volunteers who have been developing the network in the Baltimore area.

Ascension is one of the seven congregations that will house the families, who will stay at each location for a week before switching to another. The families will be housed in spare classrooms and offices at the congregations.

Because most area shelters don't house men and women together, homeless families often get split up, with the mother and children typically going to one shelter, and the father - and teenage male children - to another. As a result, families who find themselves homeless often don't seek help.

"There are very few shelters that provide services for intact families," says Laura Gillis, director of Baltimore Homeless Services, a quasi-public agency that runs homeless programs in the city.

The 10 congregations that are not providing housing will help with meals and childcare. The families will be provided with three home-cooked meals daily.

The program is almost entirely volunteer-based. Baltimore Homeless Services provided about $50,000 annually to hire a full-time director for the BIHN, but congregations are responsible for feeding and housing the families.

At any time, there are 3,000 homeless people in Baltimore, according to Gillis. Her agency has shelter for fewer than half of them, she said. In December, four homeless people died after exposure to cold. In response, the city Health Department raised the temperature threshold for opening its emergency shelters from 25 degrees to 32 degrees.

Unlike most shelter programs, this one will strongly encourage participants to find a long-term place to live. Adults in the families must set weekly goals for finding housing and will have regular meetings with the program's director, Allison Pearlman, a licensed counselor and social worker.

"They are required to do what they have to do to get permanent housing. It's a pretty intensive program," Pearlman said. "They will have to work hard."

Families can stay in the program for up to four months, although Pearlman said that if participants are making a good-faith effort to find housing, they can stay longer.

During the day, families will take a BIHN van from the congregation where they have slept to the Day Center at the parsonage at All Saints Evangelical Lutheran Church on Loch Raven Boulevard in Northeast Baltimore.

At the parsonage, a two-story house with a finished basement, the families will have access to a shower, laundry, a phone and a computer. After a day of taking care of chores and looking for housing, they will be taken back to a congregation for dinner with a volunteer family.

Eventually, BIHN hopes to have 13 congregations providing shelter, and each would provide housing once every three months.

"You have a larger pool of people to help out," said the Rev. Terry Martin-Minnich, associate pastor at Roland Park Presbyterian Church, another participating congregation. She is president of the BIHN board.

"Providing help to homeless families is what faith is all about," she said. "What better way can I love my neighbor than this?"

The BIHN is part of a nationwide program run by a New Jersey-based group called Family Promise. So far, Family Promise has helped set up volunteer interfaith homeless programs in 122 cities in 35 states. BIHN is the first in Maryland.

Over the past week, Pearlman has been interviewing potential candidates for the program. She said the first families likely will begin the program over the next few days.

Requirements dictate that families must not have a history of homelessness, must not be abusing drugs or just out of rehab, and cannot have any problems with domestic violence or serious mental illness. These rules will help target people who are likely to be helped by the program, as well as help ensure the safety of volunteers, Pearlman said.

"These folks will still have the motivation to get back to where they were," said Martin-Minnich.

david.kohn@baltsun.com