Scarce resources for single, homeless women in the metro is nothing new. Several shelters reported to 41 Action News they see an increase in that demographic needing emergency shelter. Many are turned away because the facility is at capacity. One shelter reported a 40 percent increase.
Hope Faith Ministries, the only day center for the homeless in the metro, is hoping its new facility will be an answer to the problem.
On June 1, the shelter will have a ribbon cutting for its first women’s transitional home. The old brownstone on 11th and Troost will house up to five homeless women participating in the Transitional Internship Program. Women intern at Hope Faith while taking life classes, job readiness courses, seeing counselors and therapists and actively seeking employment. The women can stay in the house throughout the 16-month, four-stage process.
The house is hope for a fresh start for women like BreyAuna Moore. She’s been jumping from couch to couch, trying to get her life on track after she lost her kids and her housing a year ago.
“It’s this one right here, the green room!” she screams while touring the home for the first time. She’s already picked out her room.
“This is the last piece of the puzzle. Then the next step is my own place, and this is the perfect stepping stool,” Moore said.
Of the 300 homeless women Hope Faith serves a month, 90 percent of them are single. That means they are not married and may not have custody of their kids if they have any. That could be for any number of reasons, including substance abuse, domestic violence or mental illness.
“A few of the women in our program are sleeping from couch to couch, but for the most part the women are staying outside,” volunteer and donations coordinator Cristi Smith said. “There are really specific regulations in the nighttime shelters to where they don’t get to stay beyond a certain amount of time.”
Smith says there are multiple shelters for men, but not enough for single, homeless women. Women with kids take precedence. The new women’s facility aims to keep Hope Faith's guests out of homelessness for good.
“This is permanent while they’re in our program so they’re not coming off the streets,” Smith said.
The renovated house has a fully equipped kitchen, where the women will learn about nutrition and cook with vegetables straight out of the Paseo West Community Garden just next door.
For future resident Elfreda Fabre, that’s something she never got to enjoy when she lived on the streets.
“My big thing is, I like to cook, and it’s hard for me to cook outside,” Fabre laughs.
She runs the women and children’s closet at Hope Faith and has a morning job now. But moving into her new home is what she’s really looking forward to.
A stable place to rest their head could break the cycle for Fabre, Moore and the countless other women who don’t know where to turn.
New home for single, homeless women. Need donations to finish furnishing. Click here: https://t.co/98r4GsF0De pic.twitter.com/h7u2BKOYXn
— Sarah Plake (@SarahPlakeTV) June 1, 2016
Moore says it’s the next step to getting her daughters back and making a positive change.
“This is literally me as a woman, as a mother, fighting my way through it. This is going to help a lot of women,” she said.
Hope Faith Ministries already owned the three-story brick home. The renovation was made possible through $90,000 in grants from Sunderland Foundation, Hodgdon Family Charitable Fund and United Methodist Church of the Resurrection.
Several men in the Transitional Internship Program used their carpentry skills to renovate the entire house. The finished house counts toward their community service requirements, and several men have future jobs lined up.
Hope Faith Ministries needs additional donations to keep the utilities running. To donate, click here.
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Sarah Plake can be reached at Sarah.Plake@KSHB.com
