Family Promise serves as a shelter for families in Delaware experiencing homelessness.
Their services are tailored to each family’s needs, and treating people with dignity and respect continues to guide their mission.
Last year, 2,100 volunteers, and 45 local congregations donated their time and resources to serve the 148 families who passed through Family Promise’s doors.
Tyler Shade, the organization’s executive director, says that idea of passing through is key. While they’re happy to serve families for as long they need, their main focus is helping them to secure and maintain permanent housing.
“Our entire goal here is to ensure that we help families become independent and sustainable on their own,” said Family Promise Executive Director Tyler Shade. “We’ll house families, and then we'll spend 12 months after the fact still working with them in whatever they need help with. This could be a landlord mediation, it could be helping them boost their income, it could be getting them connected to benefits. We'll stick around for 12 months to help families stabilize in the housing so that hopefully they won't need our help anymore.”
But finding housing to place these families in is taking longer and longer- stalling Family Promise’s process. Shade says this issue was exacerbated by the pandemic.
“Even before 2020, in the midst of a housing crisis, we were still able to house families in about 30 to 45 days. It was a pretty quick turnaround time. What we're seeing now is there just aren’t units available. Or if they are available, they’re getting 50+ applicants for single bedroom or two bedroom units that are often drastically overpriced and far above HUD’s fair market value.”
In 2022, it took an average of 67 days to secure housing.
Family Promise can only house 8 families at a time- meaning the longer each family has to stay, the less they can serve overall.
To combat this issue, the organization submitted a Community Project Funding request for Fiscal Year 2024 through Representative Lisa Blunt Rochester’s office to double their shelter capacity.
If approved by Congress, $1 million in federal funding will be used to construct a new housing facility and community building, allowing for a total of 16 families to stay there at a time.
Representative Lisa Blunt Rochester is advocating for this project as it moves through the federal House Appropriations Committee.
