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New non-profit aims to help homelessness, but needs a home itself
By Kim Nguyen, Staff Writer
A new family shelter is in the works for Collin County and it needs the community’s help to get up and running.
“Family Promise of Collin County is looking for a home to provide support for Collin County’s homeless families,” said Gary Rodenbaugh, FPCC treasurer and founding member.
FPCC received a boost in funding Wednesday after receiving a check for $1,500 from Dr. Stephanie Smith Crise, an orthodontist in McKinney.
Crise donated various amounts to Family Promises of Collin County, Samaritan Inn and the Community Food Pantry of McKinney.
“Family Promises is giving Christians the chance to get together and give back to the community in a tangible way,” Crise said. “I couldn’t wait for them to get started to begin my volunteering to them. I wanted to get involved as quickly as possible.”
The Family Promise of Collin County is part of the Interfaith Hospitality Network, which serves to address the needs of family homelessness. Through the network, religious congregations can meet the important and basic needs of homeless families.
Through the Family Promises network, local churches can open up their classroom or a family can open up their home to provide a week’s stay to a homeless family.
Each participating congregation provides overnight lodging and meals for three to five families for one week each two or three months on a rotating basis. Each morning, guests are taken by van to a day center where they meet with a network-provided social worker, have care for preschool children to look for housing and employment or go out to school or work.
“Samaritan Inn has been overwhelmed with an increase in families, to where they are turning down 12-15 families per week; a year ago, it was 12-15 families per month,” Rodenbaugh said. “It’s absurd, especially considering how affluent Collin County is.”
The relative affluence of Collin County compared to other North Texas counties poses problems, especially to non-profits and government organizations attempting to obtain an accurate count of how widespread homelessness really is.
“It’s embarrassing to admit that you’re homeless, especially the people who live in these big houses,” said Sandra Duncan, FPCC board member. “There are several pockets of homelessness around the Collin County area and people choose not to acknowledge it.”
A 2007 survey by the U.S. Census Bureau, 6.5 percent of people in Collin County lived below the poverty level.
“But those numbers are sorely understated,” said Betsy Covington, FPCC board member. “We’re facing a huge awareness issue and for a lot of people in Collin County, homelessness is an ‘out of sight, out of mind’ issue.”
To adequately serve the growing homeless population, FPCC needs the cooperation of at least 10 local church congregations to officially begin providing support services. So far, six churches have pledged to participate and provide with FPCC -- three in Plano, two in the Allen-Lucas-Fairview area and one in McKinney, Rodenbaugh said.
The next step for FPCC is to locate a day center in a central location in Collin County, such as Allen or Plano.
“Ideally, the building will be a donated space of about 500-1,000 square feet in a public building, such as a church, school or business,” Rodenbaugh said.
The day center would office the network-provided social worker, where parents can receive assistance in finding jobs or have reliable daycare for their children.
The non-profit is on track to be operational by next spring, but based off the growing number of homeless families seeking support at other area non-profits, Rodenbaugh said the sooner the better.
“The need is out there today,” he said. “We want to open our doors and help provide services and support to families as quickly as possible.”
FPCC also needs the support of dozens of volunteers to get up and running in order to help the situational homeless in Collin County.
“Just because we’re looking for a building first doesn’t mean we don’t have other needs and roles that need to be filled,” said Craig Jacobs, FPCC board member. “We’ll welcome anyone who wants to help, regardless of faith. It all boils down to people helping people.”
With millions of Americans across the country struggling to make ends meet, FPCC board members are still confident and optimistic that the non-profit will soon take off and prosper.
“The finances are not the stumbling block because there are still a lot of generous people out there who want to give time and money,” Rodenbaugh said. “We have faith that God will take care of the rest.”
Family Promises of Collin County is hoping the community will rally behind FPCC and other homeless-support non-profits.
“Our goal is to provide shelter, food and support services to Collin County families with children as they regain sustainable independence,” he said. “Rodenbaugh’s store is the oldest business in Allen. We want to contribute back to the city that’s been so great to us by helping start Family Promises.”
Two informational meetings are scheduled for church congregations or community organizations wanting to help Family Promises of Collin County get on their feet. The two meetings will take place on July 23 at Grace Presbyterian Church on W. Park Boulevard. and Aug. 24 at West Plano Presbyterian Church on Custer Road.
There is a pre-meeting which will include a Family Promise video and a brief question/answer session for newcomers starting at 6:30 p.m. and the regular meetings start at 7 p.m.
To find out how to get involved with Family Promises of Collin County, visit www.familypromiseofcollincounty.org
The following are comments from the readers.
In no way do they represent the view of Starlocalnews.com
In no way do they represent the view of Starlocalnews.com
Citizen wrote on Jul 20, 2009 11:15 AM:
" Why not use the empty courthouse building ? You can take them in right off the porch and there is plenty of room. "
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