HOME RECEIVES FUNDING TO COMPLETE 16 APARTMENTS FOR HOMELESS FAMILIES

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

City and County award funds to complete Phase I and leverage Phase II

Kissimmee, Florida

June 4^th, 2007

Helping Others Make the Effort, an Osceola-based nonprofit organization, is excited to announce that it has received a grant from the City of Kissimmee in the amount of $417,732 and an award from Osceola County in the amount of $300,000 to complete Phase I of the HOME campus. With this funding, HOME will be able to provide housing and supportive services to homeless women and their children in Osceola County within the next few months. Osceola County also will provide HOME with a firm commitment of $250,000 to leverage $750,000 in competitive state grant funding for a third apartment building.

Right now more than 850 school-age children live in motels in Osceola County. Osceola County’s tourism industry is our double-edged sword: it attracts revenue and stimulates growth, but at the same time is kept alive by service-based jobs that keep many families on the edge. Many of these families have no permanent home and must resort to pay-by-the-week motels. They can’t afford to put a deposit on an apartment and have little to no savings. If the earner in the family becomes ill, has no transportation, or loses their job, they will be just days away from living on the street. With a little support and a decent place to live, we can empower these women to become self-sufficient and improve their family’s well-being.

HOME is a model program that will provide a path to self sufficiency for homeless women and their children. On our five acre campus, we currently have two apartment buildings under construction. When complete, it will be joined by six additional apartment buildings, a playground, and a community center. Families will reside at HOME for 12 to 24 months as they get help with employment, education, financial management skills, and more. HOME is unique because it’s a social service project that offers an amazing return on investment- women who graduate will have little or no need for ongoing financial and social service support. Instead, the tables will be turned, as the women become able to give back to their community.

If construction costs are financed entirely through grants and donations, HOME will be able to serve a whole family with a year’s worth of residential and supportive services for less than $10,000. That amount is less than it would cost that family to live in a motel for one year. On top of that, HOME will also be able to leverage about $11,000 per family worth of in-kind services such as counseling, life skills classes, and tutoring for kids.

The completion of the entire project- six more buildings and a thriving community center- will require approximately 8 million dollars. Companies can help reduce HOME’s costs by providing labor and materials in-kind or at a discount. HOME also has naming rights available for the apartment buildings, the access road leading to the campus, and the community center.

For more information, please contact Cara Eule at (407) 460-2148 or Paul Owen at (407) 343-2207

Sphere: Related Content