Homeless Families

Baltimore-area homeless families will soon have a new option: 17 area religious congregations have combined forces to offer housing, food and support specifically designed for such families. The group, the Baltimore Interfaith Hospitality Network, will house up to 14 people - usually two or three families - at seven area places of worship. The network includes Baptist, Catholic and Presbyterian churches, as well as a synagogue and a Baha'i temple. The congregations are in the city and in Baltimore County.

Up to 30 Howard County families - including many living in homeless shelters and motels - could get federal rent-subsidy vouchers later this year because of confusion over the amount of available funding for the $8-million- a-year federal Section 8 program, county housing officials said. More families on the county's housing waiting list also could get vouchers, said Sam Tucker, Section 8 coordinator. Tucker and Leonard S. Vaughan, the county housing director, said Howard is rushing to spend money that officials just learned they have - but without overextending the program for next year.

Toni Volk has seen some horror stories during her four years as executive director for Congregations Concerned for the Homeless. But she has also helped make some dreams come true. CCH is a nonprofit volunteer organization of about 35 Howard County congregations established in 1990 that works to get homeless families back on their feet and headed in the right direction. The group gives families a place to live and plenty of guidance during a two-year period -- and can be there for them afterward, too. "We want to open doors to the future," Volk said.

In the shadow of Aberdeen's train station, so close that you hear the clatter of passing trains, a small faith-based organization has been quietly assisting families for 14 years on a different kind of journey: from homelessness back to self-sufficiency. Started in 1989 by churches in the Episcopal Regional Council, Holy Family House was created "to provide safe transitional housing for homeless families with children." Providing support such as free transitional housing for up to six months, life-skills training and even cooking lessons, Holy Family House has grown from an all-volunteer organization with one housing unit to a full-fledged nonprofit organization with three professional staff members, 16 housing units and a budget of $225,000.

NEW YORK - At an hour when most people in the city are snug in their beds asleep, an army of exhausted little children and their mothers are loading into yellow school buses on a desolate corner in the Bronx, clutching pillows, plastic bags and one another as they shuttle in the dark to a city shelter for the night. Shielding an infant and 2-year-old under her sweat shirt as a hard rain fell outside the city's Emergency Assistance Unit, Shantay Jones wept. "Please, I need help, I have nothing," the 21-year old mother said.

Dionne Love knew the drill at the homeless shelter: Check in by 4:30 p.m. Leave by 6 a.m. and "blow time" until shelter doors reopened. So when the mother of two learned about Pratt House, a former West Baltimore school gymnasium converted into a $5.6 million, 35-unit apartment complex for homeless families with two or more children, she moved on it. Yesterday, Love, 28, watched as officials with Volunteers of America Chesapeake and other project partners...

NEW YORK - The number of homeless families lodging nightly in New York City's shelter system has risen higher than ever and the trend is accelerating, city officials say. With a critical shortage of low-cost housing, and applications for shelter running 30 percent higher than last year, officials say they expect new records to be set this winter. No single factor explains the startling growth in homeless families in New York, which has been echoed in cities around the country, including Washington, Chicago and Oakland, Calif.

NEW YORK -- A state court ordered a temporary halt yesterday to the Giuliani administration's plan to make homeless families work for shelter, characterizing a measure that would place the children of people who fail to meet the requirement in foster care as frightening."

A $400,000 project to repair and expand a dilapidated shelter for homeless families in Westminster will begin today.Over the next few days, work crews will remove asbestos from the Family Shelter at 21 W. Green St. The two-story building is getting a complete makeover, with construction scheduled to begin next month.The project is funded in part by two federal grants. Construction is expected to be completed in January."It is the most depressing place," said Karen K. Blandford, Westminster's housing and community development manager.