A Mother & Daughter Tale:

Mary and Rachel have a lot in common.  They are, after all, mother and daughter.  They both fled abusive relationships and moved to Seattle to live with Mary’s minister father.  And when the grandfather lost the lease on his house, and the family had no where else to go, both women were accepted into The Homelessness Project (THP).  Together, they moved into a large, comfortable rambler provided by one of our housing partners (see History of The Homelessness Project: our partners & their websites).

Both Mary and Rachel are enrolled in TANF (Temporary Assistance to Needy Families), the government’s still new welfare program that requires participants to work or engage in vocational training.

There, the similarities end.  Mary has three small children at home, is juggling schooling, childcare, a job search and maternal duties while waiting to get a public housing apartment big enough for her family.  Rachel, at 19, has a decent job as an assistant manager of a restaurant and has just moved into a Seattle Housing Authority apartment with her two-year old son.  For her the system seems to have worked.

So why is Rachel the lucky one?

At the risk of drawing too many conclusions from too little evidence, it would appear that TANF and WorkFirst favor the young and relatively unencumbered.  Public Housing is easier for small families.  Relatively young mothers can pick from a range of service industry jobs, while older women with several children need higher-paying jobs to support their large families and have much less time to devote to vocational pursuits.

Closer to the truth, everyone is different.  Everyone takes a path into and out of homelessness.  For some the path is relatively smooth; others find many obstacles in their way.

Our jobs at THP would be easier if we could treat each of our clients the same way.  However, reality dictates we must tailor our approach to the needs of each individual.

At THP we provide a level of personalized attention to each client and her family.  This may mean helping them navigate the complex requirements of TANF or WorkFirst, going to bat for them with public housing authorities, or helping them line up subsidized child care, as well as providing critical emotional support and counseling.

Many programs in this area provide case management and advocacy to homeless families.  We are proud to be able to provide one of the lowest case manager to client ratios (a maximum of 1:8) in this area.  We are convinced that our level of success (85% of the families leaving our program have moved on to permanent housing) is attributed largely to the bond of trust built between our clients and their case managers.

Rachel and Mary’s case manager has worked closely with them over the past year to help them define goals and find the path that would lead each of them to stability.  She helped Rachel clear up some debts and worked with her on budgeting skills, so that she would be able to start on secure financial footing.  She helped Mary find a short-term vocational training program that would give her the basic skills she needed to get a job.  For both women, she offered a helping hand, a patient ear and, at times, a shoulder to cry on.

Rachel is already part our of success figures.  Mary and her young children still have a way to go.  However, she is extremely grateful for a comfortable place to stay and, with a job already lined up for the new year, optimistic for the future.

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The Mother’s Stories: