Rent keeps going up. Winter temperatures are coming. But there’s hope!
You and other people who care can keep families safe, secure, and in homes of their own.
With help from people like you, we can:
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Provide groceries to 300 households each week to make sure they have enough to eat.
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Provide housing and shelter to 45 families a month so they can put homelessness behind them for good.
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Help 24 families each month get their utilities turned back on.
You can help more people like Jessie by supporting SOS! (Jessie’s name is changed to protect her confidentiality).
Jessie’s children are aged 7, 6, 4, and 3. They have been homeless for more than a year and have lived wherever they could. Sometimes, they stayed for short periods of time with grandparents, aunts, and uncles. Other times, they stayed at the bus station in Ypsilanti. Since Jessie does not have her own transportation, the older children did not attend school while they were moving from place to place. The oldest child has a serious speech and language impediment.
Jessie has applied for housing many times before but has been turned down. She has some mental health problems that make it hard for her to work on more than one challenge at a time or plan for the future. She usually focuses on the most immediate problem. If she is focused on finding transportation to an appointment or securing enough food to eat for a day, it can be hard to get her to follow up on her housing search and applications.
SOS’s case worker, Regina, talked with Jessie about the way trauma can affect a person’s life. Regina was able to convince Jessie to get her own mental health evaluated. Jessie was homeless as a child with her mother. Her challenging upbringing affects her in a number of ways. Now that Jessie has a diagnosed mental health problem, she will quality for more supports and more long-term, subsidized housing options.
Regina also helped Jessie sign her two older children up for school. In addition to helping the children access clothes and regular meals, the school can offer special services to Jessie’s oldest child around her speech impediment. Regina helped Jessie request an individualized education plan (IEP) for her child.
Regina is working with Jessie to find permanent housing for her and ongoing support for her mental health.
Support from people like you is what makes the difference for people like Jessie. Thank you for caring enough to help.
You can make a difference for more families like Jessie’s in so many ways!
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Sponsor a Family for the Holidays
