Support A Reduction in Family Homelessness

Dear Friend of the Coalition:

Honor your Parents for the Holidays

The fastest growing subpopulation of homeless people in America is families, which typically means a Mother and one to two children. Imagine your own mother having to spend time in a homeless shelter. Imagine trying to figure out how to maintain a job, your child’s schooling, and search for housing while staying in the shelter. It is a miracle if a Mom and a Dad can stay together during a period of homelessness in Cleveland, and please realize that it is extremely difficult to find a shelter bed for a Dad with his children.

The Northeast Ohio Coalition for the Homeless is working every day to preserve affordable housing opportunities, expand job opportunities and eliminate civil rights barriers that confront homeless people. We make every effort to work with the City and County and the social service community to reduce the time a family spends homeless in Cleveland. In our recently published State of Homelessness Report we found that:

• The school district reported a 17% increase in children experiencing homelessness in the last year.
• First Call for Help reported a 82% increase in requests for food pantry assistance since 2006.
• The Domestic Violence Center reports a 8% increase in families served between 2008 and 2009.

Today, we introduce an effort to honor the mothers and fathers in our community while improving the services to those families that become homeless. We are asking for your support in an effort to create a Family Street Card directed at parents facing either foreclosure or are danger of becoming homeless. In exchange for a $35 donation, we will post a message on our website honoring a mother or father that you feel deserve to be recognized. We need $2,500 to prepare this Family Street Card, print the card and begin to distribute this one page easy to use resource for families struggling in our community. Currently, we print an East Cleveland Street Card, a general Street Card, and a Veteran’s Street Card. With the explosion in family homelessness over the last four years, and the decline in the number of shelter beds for families over the same period, now more than ever we need a resource to distribute to those families struggling with their housing.

For every donation that we receive, we will memorialize on our website the parent or loved one who worked to raise a child and deserves some public recognition. We will also send a thank you note either to that individual or directly to you for your support of social justice and of families who are struggling with housing. Your tax-deductible donation will allow us to create a new resource for families and at the same time honor the parent in your community who influenced you or demonstrated exemplary behavior in teaching the next generation.

To support this project, you can return the enclosed form or go to our website and donate online. Either click on the “Reduce Family Homelessness” button on the front page of our website or go directly to www.neoch.org/honoring_parents.htm in order to donate. Mark your donation with the phrase “Family Homelessness” in the purpose line. We can send a card to you to recognize your donation or we can send the card directly to your parent or the individual that you want honored, and we will also post a message on our website honoring a parent in our community.

Please help us create a new resource for families and support the Homeless Coalition. As you prepare for Mother’s Day and Father’s Day, take a minute to acknowledge someone who has had a tremendous impact on your life.

To donate go to www.neoch.org and click on Family Homelessness!

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