Recently there has been some discussion about our Family Policy here at the shelter and I wanted to share what we can and can’t do.
First some facility information:
We have 2 apartments here, a women’s side and a men’s side. On the women’s side we have 6 beds, with room to sleep about 8 people. On the men’s side we have 5 beds with room to sleep 6 people.
If we have both single men and single women staying here at the same time they are required to be in separate rooms (no co-ed bunking). There are many common areas where residents can interact if they so choose, or retreat to their rooms for privacy.
If we have a family looking for shelter and we have room to accommodate them then we can accept them as long as they understand that as long as we have single women staying with us the husband would have to sleep on the men’s side and the mother and youngest kids would sleep on the women’s side. Any older male children would sleep with dad on the men’s side. If all of our single ladies in residence were to move out then the father and boys would move in to the one apartment keeping the family unit intact.
This situation would mean that for the duration of the families stay we would have to either turn away any other single ladies, or re-separate the family to allow for proper privacy.
Neither of these situations is ideal.
I do not enjoy telling families that mommy and daddy have to sleep in separate rooms or that older siblings cannot share the comfort and support of an intact family unit sleeping in the same room.
I also do not enjoy telling a mother with 2 little kids that has been sleeping in her car for the past week that we do not have room for them despite the fact that we have empty beds on the men’s side.
I have had to do both already in the short time we have been open.
I want everyone to be safe and warm, sometimes that means that when people have to stay in an Emergency Shelter they may have to make some sacrifices though I try my best to minimize the sacrifice.
We have many common areas here at the shelter where families can be with each other during the majority of the day, separating only at night to sleep. It is the best we can do until we can expand into another facility.
Homelessness is a difficult thing with tough decisions and can be a trying time for everyone involved, including the staff here at the shelter. Sacrifices like giving up a family pet, leaving friends and neighbors, or staying in an unfamiliar place is the price that is paid when we have no other choice.
I try my best to help as many people as I can and we are here for those who need us.
If anyone has any questions about how things work here at the shelter, or if you would like a tour of our facility please feel free to send me a message here or email me at newhopeshelter@frontier.com
Pictures of our rooms can be found at www.newhopeshelter.net
Thanks for stopping by to check us out.
Sincerely,
Micah Dewing
Shelter Director