Family Promise of Northern New Castle County prevents and ends homelessness for families with children.  We are dedicated to keeping families together, serving any composition and size of family.  In Delaware, we end homelessness faster, more successfully and more cost-effectively than any other provider.  We contribute part of this success to our partnership with HUMI.

I recently met with a mom recently to see how she was doing.  She was going to be a possible speaker at our upcoming fundraising breakfast or maybe speak for a video we were putting together.  When I had called her, she cut me off and said, “Absolutely, let’s meet up! Whatever you need, I’m just so thankful.”  When I met with her, she stated:

Family Promise made it possible to rent a house by connecting me to a landlord. Family Promise did more than just covered my rent.  I had the support and the network I needed to network with other agencies.  I also was given the hope to achieve my goals.   Now I am a chef so I added on to the list of my careers and skills and moving further with my life.  Even though [the support] comes to an end it doesn’t.  Family Promise made sure to point me in other directions and established a relationships.  I went in as a stranger and then left as family.

This mom was part of our Pathway to Diversion program, a way to prevent entering shelter altogether and helping families move in to housing.  “Rapid Rehousing” resources are scarce in the first place and do not help families upstream because they aren’t part of the of the homelessness system….yet.  Diversion is the most effective model of ending homelessness in Delaware and yet, our funding options are limited.  HUMI funds have been hugely helpful to help these families move-in to housing without needing to enter the shelter system.  HUMI allowed us to serve more families and prevent homelessness in the shelter system altogether.  Another mom we served said she felt “weightless” now that she is in her own housing.  HUMI made it possible to cover her security deposit.

We are the selected provider for our county for rapid rehousing. Our success rate is impressive.  With that said, our Continuum of Care has set up guidelines for rapid rehousing which makes it so that many of our families do not qualify for rapid rehousing funding due to significant waitlists and prioritization standards.  Having additional funding sources is critical so that we continue to move families out of the shelter system to stable housing.  We never want to tell a family “no” simply because they do not qualify for a particular funding source.  HUMI support has kept our average length of stay in Family Promise below 50 days because we can move all of our families out to housing, providing necessary support for the upfront housing costs.

We are extremely thankful to the partnership we forged with HUMI.  That mom feels weightless thanks to knowing and working with Family Promise and we feel more weightless knowing and working with HUMI!  Thank you!