Ms. A came to Families Together through our community’s Street Outreach in October 2018. She was sleeping in her car, while her 2 young girls stayed with her sister every night. She had been staying with her mom, off and on, but with repeated substance abuse issues, she felt that was not the best place for her and her children so she did what she could to make ends meet. She was still able to maintain a job and keep her children in school while working with Families Together to find permanent housing, despite the barriers of having past evictions. 

Ms. A was housed in December 2018 and what a time of celebration it was! She continued to work, despite temporary jobs coming and going, because she knew she had to continue to provide a stable home for her and her children. Ms. A was able to maintain her housing for a full year, but that was not the end to her story. She was on the Section 8 waiting list for over a year and kept her information updated. She received notification from Raleigh Housing Authority in October 2019 that her name had come up on the list for a Section 8 housing voucher. Only 1 in 4 people eligible for this type of assistance actually receive it. Ms. A was overjoyed and enlisted her Families Together Stabilization MA's assistance with the process and in February 2020, she was able to successfully move from one home to another. Ms. A told her Mentor Advocate “if it were not for Families Together pushing me to keep going, I do not know where I would be.”

Ms. A is now a mother of 3, has a full-time job with Spectrum, and in her words is "Happy to be Home."

Written By: Lisa Rowe

White Flag nights are the community’s response to ensuring that homeless men, women, and children have a place to stay on nights when the temperatures drop.  Area shelters typically accommodate additional guests on these nights throughout the cold weather season.  It’s fairly unusual for it to get into the 30’s in May!  With the forecast, however, and with congregate shelters not operating - or only doing so on a very limited basis - the County worked to find a hotel that would accommodate those in need. 

They were able to secure 50 rooms at the DoubleTree on Hillsborough Street near NCSU. 

• The Partnership to End and Prevent Homeless convened a call with key community partners after communications with the County about a hotel being secured

• The group spoke by phone at 1:00 pm on Saturday, and everyone went into action from there.

  • Oak City Cares helped to get the word out

  • Staff from Healing Transitions and Interact manned the lobby to assist hotel staff with check-in, meals and logistics from 4:00 pm -8:00 pm

  • Interfaith Food Shuttle provided pre-packaged meals for dinner and snack bags for the morning – coordinated by County/Cooperative Extension staff

  • Staff from Urban Ministries stayed overnight to be available should the need arise from 8:00 pm-8:00 am

  • A security guard from York Properties was on hand from start to finish (4:00 pm-10:00 am)

  • Staff from Families Together, InterAct and Healing Transitions arrived to help with the check out process – ensuring all guests were awake and ready to check out at 9:00 am and to distribute snack bags (8:00-10:00 am)

I was there as people came down to check out.  In the lobby and outside I encountered some very happy, friendly, grateful, and refreshed men and women this morning!  I heard things like “I slept like a baby!” and “oh, the shower felt so good!”. 

In total, 25 rooms were used.  The original plan was for women and families – but the need seemed to lie with single men and women – all of whom had been sleeping outdoors and would’ve spent a very cold night outdoors had this option not opened up.  It was a nice display of community agencies coming together to meet an urgent and sudden need.

Written by Holly Nelson

On Monday, March 30th at 5 p.m. the stay at home order went into effect. This order, put in place by Governor Roy Cooper, instructed people in the state of North Carolina to stay at home to slow the spread of the COVID-19 coronavirus. 

This order, although it would save lives, disrupted many routines. It forced people to find a new normal. Many people are working from home. Classrooms have shifted from schools to dining rooms. People are filling roles that they may not have had to take on before.

Although things have changed due to these unprecedented times, the housing crisis in Wake County has not. In 2019, it was reported by the Wake County School system that over 4,000 students were experiencing homelessness. At a time when home means more than ever, Families Together is working diligently to bridge that gap.

Families Together has served in Wake County for 40 years and worked towards the goal of eradicating child homelessness. COVID-19 has changed the ways the organization operates and communicates with the families in their programs.

Jacquelyn Saunee, a Families Together Pre-Housing Mentor Advocate, gave a quick overview of what all her job entails: “I work with families enrolled in our shelter, transitional housing programs, and Rapid Rehousing. I provide case management, support, resources, and referrals to families experiencing homelessness.”  

A significant portion of her work includes communicating with families and a majority of that was done in person. She has, of course, changed her approach to communication. No longer can she meet face-to-face with clients, unless it is an emergency. She now has to rely heavily on technology to check in with her clients. This might be by either phone or video calls, depending on the resources the families have.

This transition has been difficult. Families Together takes pride in their commitment and service to the families in their programs. It is difficult not seeing clients almost every day and making sure they get the resources that they need. 

Some of the things Jacquelyn is proud of is the hard work her team has put in.

“I am proud of all the hard work that the program team has been doing to support our families- ensuring that our families have the supplies they need, internet access in order to help their kids with virtual learning, etc. I am proud of how quickly we’ve adapted and jumped in to continue providing on-going support to the families we serve.” Jacquelyn said. 

Since the start of the stay at home order, Families Together has been able to provide computers and internet access to all the families in the program who need it. There are currently six bridge housing/emergency shelter units and all have been provided with internet and Chromebooks. These resources will allow children to continue their schoolwork.

Although efforts have been successful and have provided the most needed resources to their clients, Families Together is still concerned about the following,

“I worry about children falling behind in school and parents being out of work for long periods of time or not being able to go back to work due to their kids being out of school,” Jacquelyn said. “I worry about the uncertainty of this situation and the lasting impacts that COVID-19 will have on our families.”

Families Together will continue to work at providing affordable housing for families at risk. They continue to provide the resources that their families need in order for them to succeed. On May 5th, Families Together will be participating in Giving Tuesday NOW. A worldwide day of community that will help support organizations in need of funding, awareness, and strength during this pandemic. 

Families Together is hopeful that people who share a concern for their mission will give in support of families experiencing homelessness during this time of crisis. 

Families Together is deeply invested in advocating for Affordable Housing. As a successful rapid rehousing provider in Wake County, Families Together has a lead role in efforts to create a community-wide system to end homelessness and improve the health and well-being of families. Solving family homelessness and ensuring adequate availability of affordable housing will require a broad, community-wide effort. Families Together has nearly 40 years of rehousing experience. For several years, we have studied the affordable housing crisis and evaluated how we can leverage our strengths for positive change.

The scope of the issue of Affordable Housing:

Families Together addresses our community’s need for self-sufficient, resilient families who have access to safe, dignified, affordable housing. While we had past success following best practices of the Housing First model, new external pressures have made it increasingly difficult for our program families to access market-rate rental units that are affordable. These include:

- A gap of 17,000 rental units needed for families that are extremely low income.

- Loss of approximately 1,000 affordable housing units annually in Wake County.

- Skyrocketing rent requires a household to earn $19.73/hour to afford the average two-bedroom apartment.

- An 86% increase in student homelessness since 2010 – four times the rate of the general population increase. This includes a quadrupling of families living in motels in the last five years.

More facts about the affordable housing challenges are community faces can be found here: https://familiestogethernc.org/face-the-facts

What we are doing about the issue?

In 2018, the Families Together Board of Directors set three new strategic goals: 

1. Grow our capacity in terms of staff, funding and workspace; 

2. Increase the pool of affordable housing for the families we serve; 

3. Increase awareness and advocate for affordable housing policies for extremely low-income families.

Since that time we have developed an Affordable Housing Project and begun to build a portfolio of affordable housing that FT owns outright, master leases, or accesses through innovative partnerships. 

To ensure homeless families are being represented where key decisions are being made that impact their lives, we have taken the following steps:

• Formed an Advocacy Committee led by Board and community members

• Created and launched Voices Together, a leadership and public speaking, skills-building program for clients in our program to join our team as we advocate for more affordable housing 

• Co-launched a coalition of non-profit housing providers to coordinate and speak collectively on the need for more affordable housing

• Accepted an invitation to serve on the City of Raleigh’s Affordable Housing Bond Advisory Committee

As we work to increase awareness and encourage community feedback about the AHB plans, we encourage you to participate

An invitation to you:

The city of Raleigh has issued a survey about an affordable housing bond. We would like to invite everyone in our community to take this survey.

Motivated by our Vision statement of “No homeless families in our community” and our Mission of “Moving families from homelessness to home,” Families Together supports the following positions:

1. We will encourage local governments to work towards providing adequate affordable housing solutions, particularly those targeting homeless populations and very low-income renters.

2. We will support a housing bond vote to be held in November by the City of Raleigh to provide funding to increase the pool of affordable housing.

3. We will engage our communities to become involved by participating in the City of Raleigh Affordable Housing Bond survey.

Learn more about the City of Raleigh’s Affordable Housing Bond plans: https://raleighnc.gov/housing-bond-2020 

Please take a few minutes to complete the survey now. Make your voice heard!

Complete the survey now. 

The unthinkable happened to me and my family a few years ago.

We lost a job. Then we lost our home. In a flash, my husband, our two young daughters and I were living in our family car.

The worst fears came in the middle of the night. Approaching headlights terrified me as we lay hunched down on the car seats trying to sleep. Would we be discovered? Would someone try to harm my girls?

Terror turned into hope when we were referred to Families Together. They provided financial assistance to help us start over and found housing we could afford long-term.

But there was something more that made the difference.

Our lives were changed because of the empowerment, the hope, and the love we got from Families Together. Those things that money can’t buy opened the door to new opportunities.

My mentor advocate encouraged me to apply for a better-paying job. I took that step because she believed in me - and I got the job! I’m an HR professional and have been promoted several times since.

When the Families Together Board of Directors invited me to join them, I leapt at the chance to provide an important family perspective and to shape the strategic decisions we make for FT.

Most recently, I received training in public speaking and storytelling in the FT Voices Together program. I’ve honed my communication skills and speak on behalf of Families Together every chance I get. And every time I do, I grow in confidence and self-esteem.

My daughters have seen me grow into a community leader – an example they’ve followed by becoming leaders themselves. They are honor roll students, talented athletes, and even helped to start a new club program at their high school! They make my husband and me so proud.

You took a chance on us sight unseen by supporting Families Together. For that, I am forever grateful to you.

With deep appreciation,

Gwen Jackson

P.S. I hope you take pride in your investments in Families Together and will continue your support. I’m here to tell you that it pays dividends in wonderful ways you cannot imagine. 

At school, I was stressed about how to hide my homelessness and, when I wasn’t at school, I was stressed about how to satisfy at least my immediate needs”

Latte Harris is a teen from Vancouver, Washington who recently wrote a blog for HomeRoom, the Department of Education’s blog. Latte provided important insights about what it's like to experience homelessness while trying to achieve her educational goals.

She said, “Have you wondered what being homeless is like? Being homeless is like driving a car with three wheels. You don’t have all the tools you need to succeed. While other cars zip past you, hope begins to dissipate with every passing mile. It is like living two different lives. At school, I was stressed about how to hide my homelessness and, when I wasn’t at school, I was stressed about how to satisfy at least my immediate needs”

Latte overcame tremendous obstacles and was able to graduate high school and become the first person in her family to attend college. Latte is more the exception than the rule as students who are homeless drop out at a much higher rate than students with stable homes.

The Department of Education explains one challenge of being homeless while attending school stating, “Homeless students experience greater school mobility than their non-homeless peers. School mobility can cause interruptions to a child’s education and is associated with lower school achievement and increased risk of dropping out of school.”

Getting a good education is critical to breaking the cycle of poverty that many homeless students grow up in but homelessness in and of itself prevents many students from being successful in school. It’s a cycle that many students can’t break, and then pass down to the future generations.

Families Together’s core model is designed to move families with children from homelessness to stable homes as quickly as possible. By doing so, we reduce the likelihood of student absenteeism and increase the chances of academic achievement. Ultimately we work to break the cycle of homelessness, build family cohesion, and give children the opportunity to thrive.

Zillow recently hosted a round-table discussion in Washington, D.C. based on this new research. Their research reported that “Communities where people spend more than 32 percent of their income on rent can expect a more rapid increase in homelessness”. They further noted, “This research demonstrates that the homeless population climbs faster when rent affordability – the share of income people spend on rent – crosses certain thresholds.”

Recent reports show that in Raleigh a household must earn about $20 an hour to afford a two-bedroom apartment and not spend more than 30% of their income on rent. The News & Observer’s Henry Gargan reported that 45% of Raleigh renters are spending over 30% of their income on rent making them housing insecure. The research discussed at the DC round-table hosted by Zillow suggests that the increases in housing insecurity that Raleigh is experiencing could portend a more rapid increase in homelessness. The good news is that our Wake County and City of Raleigh officials are working on policies to preserve and create affordable housing. But will that be enough?

About 85% of the families we serve include at least one person that is employed, but on average they earn about half of what is needed to sustain rent payments in Raleigh. These families that are working so hard to get out of homelessness face the hardest uphill climb of all. Some of the ways Families Together is working to anticipate and address the challenges they will face include providing more workforce training to increase household earnings, hiring a financial health counselor to help families improve credit scores and money management, partnering with groups like Habitat for Humanity to help families move from homelessness to home ownership, and increasing the pool of affordable housing by purchasing and preserving naturally occurring affordable housing.

Holiday Smiles Program

The Holidays can be one of the hardest times of the year for families experiencing homelessness.  A time that should be happy and bright can bring stress and sadness as families work to get back on their feet...YOU can help bring the cheer back to the season!

Our Holiday Smiles Program is unique from other programs in the community in that your holiday gifts will go directly to the family you're matched with.  When you shop, the wishes you are fulfilling are truly the wishes of the individuals we serve. As a sponsor you will receive a holiday gift wish list with first names, ages, favorite colors, clothing sizes, etc.  You decide on the number of families, the size and even the amount you want to spend.  The Families Together Staff will be available to support you as you work to fulfill wishes. This is a rewarding opportunity to do as a family or as a group effort in your community.

At Families Together, we believe that every family deserves a home and children should never have to wonder where they’re going to sleep at night. Taking into account infants and young children that are not yet in school, a total of 5,000 children will go homeless in Wake County this year.  Your support is critical to our mission of taking families from homelessness to home.  

You through your donations are the best hope for children that would otherwise fall through gaps in the safety net. Take a look at the impact you made on the lives of families experiencing homelessness last year:

Ultimately, you’ll help break the cycle of homelessness, build family cohesion, and give children the hope that begins with a home.

You may have heard about planned giving, but are not familiar with the benefits. A planned gift is really quite easy - it involves some planning that helps both you and our mission. We’re excited to announce that Families Together has launched a new Planned Giving website.

Do you own an IRA or other qualified retirement plan? Are you looking for a tax-wise strategy to make gifts to support our mission? Our new website is a great information resource with planning tools, videos, and stories to help you create a legacy of hope and opportunity.

You would leave a legacy of hope and opportunity and take advantage of many tax benefits of making a gift! What are the benefits of making a bequest? Get practical information for you and your family. Planning tools and helpful information can be found here: http://ftlegacy.org/?pageID=166