Homeless
Concerns Committee
at Fairfax Presbyterian Church
The
Homeless Concerns Committee at Fairfax Presbyterian
Church provides assistance to families and individuals who cannot
afford housing as they move from temporary shelter to publicly-supported
housing.
Assistance
varies according to individual need.
It has included:
- Help
with paying utility bills
- Budget
counseling
- Special
activities at Thanksgiving and Christmas
- Legal
assistance in the form of interpretation and advocacy
- Arranging
for donated vehicle
- Just
simple being a friend
- Furnishing
a house with donated and purchased furniture
- Providing
a clothing supplement at the beginning of the school year
- Helping
with uncovered medical expenses
- Providing
family recreation opportunities
and
a whole lot more. Sometimes it's just the knowledge that you're
not alone.
The
Homeless Concerns Committee works with Project
Homes, a Fairfax County program that seeks to provide stability
to clients as they embark on a new housing experience. A church
sponsor nominally stays with at family for a period of a year after
they obtain section 8 (public boucher) housing. In practice, it
is often longer. The most typical client is a younger family where
the husband for one reason or another is no longer there. In the
course of a year the Homeless Concerns Committee may be in contact
with as many as 8 family cases, with normally 4 on-going at any
one time.
The
Homeless Concerns Committee has been an FPC church
mission project since 1988, with well over 40 family units having
been helped in that period. With new public budget realities, the
Committee is looking at new avenues of homelessness approach.
The
work of the Homeless Concerns Committee is handled
both on a committee-of-the-whole and an individual case management
basis. It is supported by the FPC Church budget and the unbounded
generosity of the congregation with donated materials.
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