Four homes are being built in Siloam Springs in an effort to help homeless families become self-sufficient.
There was a groundbreaking Thursday at East Kenwood Missionary Baptist Church for what the church is calling "Project Launch Pad." Three of the homes will be 500 square feet and another will be 600 square feet that will house a family of six. Each family will spend 90 days at the transitional housing while obtaining jobs and learning life skills such as financial planning in hopes of breaking the poverty chain. Every 90 days, another family will move in, meaning the project can help 16 families each year.
"It's a small pad basically like you would have for a space ship," said EKMBC pastor Jeremy Wiginton. "It will help families regroup, save money and then essentially launch them out on their own."
It's a collaborative effort between churches, civic groups and the Genesis House, a homeless day shelter that has been supporting families in Siloam Springs for more than a decade. Genesis House executive director Harvey McCone said the seed money for the project came from grant money through the Family Jumpstart Program, but the homes are being built by volunteers and with private funding.
McCone said there are 1,000 people, including 400 children, among Siloam Springs' population of 15,123 (according to 2010 U.S. Census) that are homeless. His day shelter receives more than 2,500 visits annually. It provides food, hot showers, laundry, mail services, telephone, email access and assistance with accessing resources from the government and non-profit groups. Through a winter shelter program that began last year, they also began partnering with local churches to find a place for families to stay at night because there was never enough funding to meet the need with rent and hotel vouchers.
"The housing component was kind of the missing link," McCone said. "We were only able to help about 25 percent of those 1,000 because we don't always have the money to help with rent or for a hotel and we didn't have any kind of transitional housing at night."
Imagine a single mother who suddenly is laid off and no longer has the money to pay for rent. They get evicted and some end up in the Genesis House winter sheltering program. That meant her children may sleep in a different hotel or church each night while still trying to focus on school work despite not knowing where they're going to sleep that night.
"It's very disruptive and it was gut-wrenching to see what kids were going through," McCone said. "There was one kid who ran into his teacher once at one of the churches. The kid, who was very self-conscious and embarrassed, said to the teacher, 'Please don't tell anyone I'm homeless.'"
East Kenwood Missionary Baptist Church connected with Genesis House about two years ago by hosting families on Sundays. It gave Genesis House employees their "only day off" and provided families with meals. It also gave church members a chance to build relationships. The church has helped about 10-12 families thus far and Wiginton has been pleased by a "90 percent success rate of families becoming self-sustainable."
One single mother was fleeing an abusive relationship and was having to choose between "food or shelter because she was afraid to ask for government assistance for fear she may lose the children and they would be turned back over to the abusive father," he said. Another couple was living out of their car after both parents were laid off. Without relatives living nearby, or relatives who also were on the edge of poverty, there was no safety net.
"People become homeless for different reasons," Wiginton said. "And a key thing is the families that we're helping have to pass a background check before they can move into homes.
"It's been a huge win for us. A lot of these things and a lot of people have come together to help family launch be more successful."
Wiginton said his hope is for other churches and communities to see the success of the program, which is similar to others around the country. Genesis House is in charge of identifying the families and supporting them throughout the 90 days, and beyond if necessary, while the church essentially will manage the housing.
The challenge, McCone said, is finding volunteers to help with everything from transportation to construction of the homes while also "keeping everything going with funding."
"It's all kind of coming into focus with the 90-day housing," McCone said. "It could be replaced and put in another place like Gentry or wherever if it turns out to be successful because there is a big lack of affordable housing in the area.
"These people are the bottom point. They're not only homeless, they're helpless. Hopefully, we can build them up and we eventually want to get them into their own house."
Homes are expected to be completed by this summer, if not sooner. Anyone interested in volunteering or making a donation can contact the Genesis House at 479-549-3438 or email the church at [email protected].
General News on 02/21/2018