Cascade Alliance

Cascade Alliance Members: Combating the National Homelessness Crisis

The housing crisis and rising homelessness rates are national issues that are visibly intensifying. Several of our members are actively working to address homelessness by serving unhoused families and youth in their communities.

Services range from mitigating risk-factors that contribute to loss of housing, meeting basic needs of those experiencing homelessness, to resource provision for those transitioning back into housing.  Here are a few ways our network is working to combat the national homelessness crisis:

• Vincent de Paul of Dayton, OH: Services for homeless adults and families include emergency services, and emergency shelter. Part of their work includes making resources available for those were are at-risk of becoming homeless, such as utility assistance. Food, furniture and clothing are available to recently or currently homeless individuals. Those experiencing homelessness can seek refuge in temporary emergency shelters: meals, showers, clothing, personal care items, and case management are all provided in-house.
• The Furniture Bank of Metro Atlanta and The Mustard Seed of Central Florida provides furniture and household items for families transitioning out of homelessness.
• Opportunity House operates an emergency shelter, with meals for clients. They also run case management services, and provide affordable housing in their community.
• Total Action for Progress offers case managed services for young people moving out of homelessness in Roanoke, VA. Through their Homeless Employment and Learning Program (HELP), participants are supported with securing employment, and housing.
• Union Rescue Mission of Wichita operates transitional housing and provides hot meals, shelter, and self-sufficiency services to community members.
• Vincent de Paul Society of Lane County has developed over 1,400 units of affordable housing, operates a food pantry and multiple emergency shelter programs, and provides emergency services such as rent and utility assistance.

Recent data speaks to the severity of the homelessness crisis: housing instability is impacting children and young people at alarming rates, with 1.5 million public school students experiencing homelessness in 2018. In Lane County, OR, 400 students in the Eugene-Springfield school system were without permanent shelter in around the same period. As a response, SVdP of Lane County opened a Youth House for houseless teen girls in 2018. The facility houses 14 homeless high school students, with programs aimed at supporting educational attainment of occupants aged 16-18. (An interior shot of the Youth House is pictured here.)

While our services have been in operation for many years, we often adapt existing programs to meet evolving needs.