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charley@beaufortgazette.com
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Afraid and cold, a single mother tucks her children, ages 1 and 9, into a makeshift bed -- in the back seat of her car in the parking lot of a Boundary Street motel.
Through community support and resources, program helps people get back on their feet
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The next day, a friend tells her about Family Promise -- an interfaith, nonprofit organization that helps low-income families find new hope by offering shelter, food, educational training, child care and fellowship.
Beaufort County's homeless don't meet typical media characterizations. They are not pushing shopping carts around downtown streets, wearing old clothes and mismatched shoes:
A working mother with a teenage daughter -- who makes just $14 more per month than the federal government allows in order to receive housing assistance -- also is homeless.
A health care worker was laid off from her job, leaving her and her two children with no money to pay rent. An eviction notice followed. While seeking help from the Beaufort County Department of Social Services, she discovered Family Promise. The group helped her move her furniture to a paid-for storage facility, create goals -- and steps to meet those goals. She was given a place to sleep, bathe, three meals a day and day care. She also received advice on finances, refining her resume and work on interviewing and job-seeking skills. Within three weeks, the laid-off health care worker got a job, started bringing home money and to paying off debts, while she stayed with a different congregation each week.
A father of four daughters lost his construction job, and he sought a place for his wife and children to live with no paycheck coming in.
Beaufort's Family Promise opened its doors in July, but has been in the works for two years. It is the 131st affiliate around the country where 30 churches serve as host congregations, and 13 serve as support churches to help provide beds, food and fellowship to homeless families.
Nationally, 80 percent of the families who participate in Family Promise never cycle back into the homeless situation, said Emily Bugay, Family Promise of Beaufort County director, who received her master of arts in religion from Lutheran Theological Southern Seminary in Columbia.
St. John's Lutheran Church Pastor Shannon Mullen, who has worked with Family Promise since 2002 and serves on the board of the Beaufort group, sees it as long-term, lifetime help:
"There are lots of great ministries out there that help people with emergency help, such as giving them some food or paying an electric bill, but this helps people reorganize their lives and to grow in their job skills, provides self confidence, and help with planning and budgeting. It helps them to make a change in their life.
"We can only help a few people at a time, but you are making a big difference in their lives. You are helping more than one generation because we help people with children. Once they learn how to get lives more stable, then their children learn that from them. Hopefully, we are helping generations to come to help break cycles of poverty that lead to homelessness."
The program requires a long-term commitment on participants, he said. "We are giving people the tools to change their lives for the better," said Mullen, who worked with the program in 2002 when he was pastor at Trinity Lutheran Church in Greenville.
TRUE 'FAMILY' PROMISE
During Thanksgiving week, three families found comfort in the program, which began nationally 20 years ago in New Jersey.
Each week, a family becomes a "guest" of a church where members spend the night with them and support churches supply food. Some churches turn a row of Sunday School rooms into homes complete with beds, window curtains, bedside stands with lamps and alarm clocks. From around 6 p.m. until about 7 a.m., the family calls this home where they eat meals, play games and socialize with church members.
When Bugay, 24, was in middle school, she remembers helping her mother and sister cook food for "guest" families at their church, Trinity Lutheran in Greenville.
One particular Christmas Eve, she remembers spending with the guest family. "We spent the night with the families at the church, and my dad dressed like Santa. The kids loved it, and we got to put presents out," Bugay said. "It was cool to make that warm, home environment feeling I had for so many years, for families who didn't have it.
"One of the really cool things about Family Promise is that families can volunteer together, and they can learn about their faith and how important it is to care about others in their community."Bugay grew up in the Greenville area where a Family Promise has been in existence for more than 10 years. The program also is in Spartanburg and Lancaster, and a new one is starting in Myrtle Beach.
"In the beginning, I may have been a little hesitant," Bugay recalled of her middle-school years. "But I realized the kids were just kids like me. These are families going through a rough situation"
Before being accepted into Family Promise, participants are interviewed, background checks and drug tests are run. The guests meet weekly to set goals for securing employment and a new home.
FINDING THE HOMELESS
Family Promise grew out of a study conducted by the Beaufort County Alliance for Human Services to try to improve Beaufort County. One of those goals was to lessen the number of children in poverty, said Bugay.
Researchers found one in every five children in Beaufort County lives in poverty -- either they are living below the poverty line or lacking many basic needs, according to Bugay.
They are living in unaffordable housing, which means their housing is more than a third of their income (housing should be less than one third of their income).
"Our goal is to address the underlying causes of homelessness and to not be a Band-Aid," said Bugay. "Many are living paycheck to paycheck and emergency to emergency -- constantly having to use emergency providers. The families still have their hands in the government's pocket. We are trying to get them independent and in sustainable housing so they are not constantly relying on groups to pay their electricity bill each month."
Referrals are found through schools, social workers and counselors, the Department of Social Services churches and other agencies such as Bluffton Self Help, United Way, Citizens Opposed to Domestic Abuse and Deep Well.
"It is a struggle to find affordable housing on a single parent's income," Bugay said, noting that it is also hard to pay for child care.
One parent was spending 50 percent of her paycheck on child care, 40 percent to housing and the family was unable to live on the other 10 percent.
The Family Promise definition of homelessness is broader than government standards, which do not recognize homelessness when more than one family is living in a house together.
"Our definition is three families living on top of each other or families who live in their car," Bugay said. "A lot of times, there is only so long that some families can live together and be civil. This can cause some rift in family situations that is not healthy.
"Our main belief is one homeless child is too many."
Some families live in their cars for two nights until they can get a paycheck, then stay in motels for three nights. Others have found it cheaper to live in a motel because they don't have to pay for rent and utilities.
Family Promise of Beaufort County is geared to help four families, or 14 people, at once. But the need is growing, and more guests are expected.
"It is really hitting a lot of families right now," Bugay said. "It is a tough time. We expect there to be more need, and, unfortunately, the need is growing. We expect to have more phone calls as things go on with the economy."
For more information
If you know of a family who needs help, would like to make a donation or you want to volunteer, contact Family Promise Day Center: 843-815-4211
or go to familypromisebeaufortcountysc.com.
E-mail: familypromisebc @gmail.com
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