A transitional housing facility in Brackenridge has helped more than 180 people down on their luck since opening last year.
Now, Family Promise House’s parent organization, the nonprofit Allegheny Valley Association of Churches, will use newly awarded funding to try to keep people from needing to use the facility at all.
The association received a $20,000 grant from Clayton, a Berkshire Hathaway company, to help families across the Alle-Kiski Valley regain stability. It is among $1.5 million distributed by Clayton to the Family Promise national network.
“This funding opportunity gives us the ability to go beyond the service of providing family shelter and gives us the ability to keep families in the home they already have,” said Karen Snair, AVAC executive director.
The money will be used to help families remain independent or support them during a temporary stay with family. Keeping families where they are makes more sense, is cost-effective and less stressful, Snair said.
“Maybe we have someone who can stay somewhere until they get back on their own, but they don’t have the means to drive their children to school every day,” Snair said. “We could use this to provide gas vouchers.”
Clayton also has donated 18 homes to the Family Promise national network since 2019. These homes are used mainly for temporary stays that allow families to be together while receiving case management and support services.
In Allegheny County, there were about 670 people in an emergency shelter program between April 1 and 22, according to data provided by Melissa Brock, public affairs manager of the Department of Human Services Office of Equity and Engagement.
Over the past year, about 600 people enrolled in one of six family shelters at least once from April 2022 through March 2023.
Brackenridge Mayor Lindsay Fraser believes the Family Promise House “is one of the strongest street homelessness prevention programs that we have” in the county.
“In addition to the shelter and services offered to families staying in the Family Promise House, AVAC staff works to move families into affordable rental units,” Fraser said. “Almost all of them are locally owned and maintained.”
The association receives funding from DHS to help with Family Promise House operations, which cost more than $20,000 a month.
The site opened in February 2024 at 903 Morgan St. in the former Applewood Personal Care Home. It is for families with children only.
The home can accommodate 27 people at a time, and Snair said there is 24-hour supervision and security at night.
Of the 180 people that have stayed at the facility this year, about 105 have been children.