Happy Mother’s Day from DHS

As many of us prepare to celebrate Mother’s Day this weekend, I can’t help but ponder the reality that on any given morning there are at least a dozen young mothers waiting at the doors of the Virginia Williams Family Resource Center, sometimes with child in arms, seeking help with housing. Most are young, single, and are now facing a housing crisis because the relative or friend currently providing that safety net is now possibly beginning to experience housing instability as well. Many have never lived on their own and are overwhelmed with the prospect of doing so.

As DHS works to implement Homeward DC, the strategic plan that will make homelessness rare, brief and non-recurring in the next five years, one of the first strategies has been to develop and launch a robust Homeless Prevention Program to enhance the system so that homelessness does indeed become rare. DHS in partnership with several community based service providers launched such an effort in September, 2015, and has since prevented more than 1,000 families from experiencing homelessness.

The new Homeless Prevention Program has a primary focus on diverting families from shelter and providing the resources to keep them out of homelessness, and is modeled after other successful programs across the country. When families come into the Virginia Williams Family Resource Center, the staff work to quickly identify exactly what may be needed to keep the family safe and avoid a shelter stay while developing a plan to obtain permanent housing security. Families are able to receive a variety of different services based on their individual needs, including mediation between the family and the landlord, housing search, case-coordination, and linkages to employment and community services, budgeting, financial assistance, and utility assistance.

In January 2016, twenty-three year-old “Jackie” and her 2 year-old daughter had been staying with a friend and contributing $350 monthly toward the household when the friend announced that she was somehow many months behind in rent and had received a writ of eviction. Community based prevention staff was able to mediate with Jackie’s small circle of family and friends to negotiate a place for her and her daughter to stay until she was able to secure permanent housing. Jackie had a misdemeanor from the past on her criminal record that may have been a barrier to her obtaining approval for an apartment. Finally, in March, she received the call she had been waiting for and signed her lease on March 11, 2016.

Jackie’s approval came as a direct result of the service provider’s relationship with the landlord and management company, and is just one example of how the District is leveraging its partnerships to meet the needs of families. If you know a mother who is at risk of losing their housing, give her a Mother’s Day gift she’ll not likely forget — tell her about this program at VWFRC — tell her that DHS is here to support her and her family.

And of course, the program provides services to dads as well…:-)

Susan Keenan, Deputy Administrator, Family Services Administration, DHS