Walking into Chuck and Charlise's new home, you are met with a large “Bless our Nest” sign and an abundance of house plants brightening the room. “It's the little things,” Charlise says, “We could never have plants before, anything that required a permanent place.” Now their home is filled with plants and sunshine, a sign they have found that permanence that they so faithfully worked for.
Before Family Promise, Chuck and Charlise were bouncing from motel room to motel room, spending over 50% of Chuck’s full-time income, doing everything they could for their daughter Sophie to have a safe place to sleep at night. This came at as a cost though, as money spent on motel rooms meant less money available for other necessities.
“We didn’t have enough for anything else… it’s a vicious cycle. The further you get in, the harder it is to get out.”
This vicious cycle of poverty and survival is familiar to families that come through Family Promise. Often exhausting all other resources and not having an emotional or relationship safety net, families face homelessness.
Charlise describes the stigma that comes from experiencing homeless as brutal. “People think we are all lazy bums. Many of us are paycheck to paycheck, hardworking, normal people who run into problems and need a little bit of help getting out of it.”
After much searching, this little family found a safe place to land at Family Promise. Because they no longer had motel bills stacking up, they were finally able to save money and create time to find permanent housing. “Being at Family Promise allowed us to save for stable housing.’ And there’s joy in their newly found home: “Our living room is now bigger than the size of the space we were living in in our hotel room.”
On average, 70% of the families served in the shelter program secure housing within 8 weeks. Because of the depth of services and community support, families stay housed, and Family Promise of Spokane provides both prevention and stabilization services to increase our long-term impact.
After Sophie runs to her mother with a warm hug and a picture she drew, Charlise says, “I want consistency for her. I can now concentrate on things like that for her, while in the shelter I could only think of the next 15-20 minutes to get through the day. Now I can dream.”
Your monthly gift of just $24.50 makes dreams - just like Chalise’s - come true.
“The encouragement we received from Family Promise made the difference.”
Give now at www.familypromiseofspokane.org/donate