Emergency housing network for families launches in Bozeman

By BETH SLOVIC Chronicle Staff Writer

Some forms of homelessness are hidden from plain view.

A parent with no savings loses her job, then her apartment. The next thing you know, she is living with her children in the family room of her friend's apartment or in her car, struggling to get her life back together.

She has a roof over her head, but she is homeless and so are her kids.

A new nonprofit organization in Bozeman is seeking to help Gallatin Valley families who suddenly find themselves in similar situations.

The group, Family Promise of Gallatin Valley, Inc., which is supported by a network of area churches and a synagogue, is set to welcome its first families into the program, March 5.

Family Promise's executive director, Gloria Edwards, predicted with sadness that the organization will have no trouble finding parents and children to help immediately.

"Some people are one paycheck away from being homeless," Edwards, former director of the Gallatin County Victim Witness Program, said.

For example, right now more than 750 individuals and families are on the Human Resource Development Council's waiting list for Section 8 housing vouchers, Katherine Slocum, HRDC's housing advocate, said Wednesday.

As a result, the wait for anyone needing federal housing assistance in Gallatin, Park or Meagher county is two and a half years long, she added.

"There's just too much need," Slocum said.

When it launches, Family Promise will welcome three to five families, or a total of 14 people, into the program. Individual adults without children are not eligible.

Family Promise, however, is not a shelter. It is a network of religious organizations supported by volunteers and at least one paid staff member. Its mission is to temporarily house needy families while connecting them to other service groups in Bozeman.

"This is a real alternative to having a shelter," Edwards said. "A shelter is just a place to hang your hat."

For approximately 90 days, the families will sleep in area churches, rotating between nine host congregations every Sunday.

Church volunteers will feed the families, but no one is ever permitted to proselytize, Edwards said.

First Baptist Church of Bozeman, one of the host congregations, donated a passenger van to the group, which will be used to shuttle children from the churches to their schools, among other things.

St. James Episcopal Church, another host congregation, is providing a house on South Tracy Avenue rent-free for two years. The building will house the group's Family Center, where mothers and fathers will be able to use computers to look for jobs and access social services during the day.

All participating parents will be required to work or look for work, Edwards said.

"We're not going to be enabling people," she explained.

The idea for addressing homelessness in Bozeman sprouted more than four years ago, Deacon Roxanne Klingensmith of St. James said. But the group of concerned Bozeman residents had trouble getting the project off the ground.

"We had a lot of work to do, and there just wasn't any leadership," Klingensmith, who is also president of Family Promise's board of directors, said.

Another group of residents, which happened to overlap a bit with the first group, then took up the cause, and they found inspiration in information from Rev. Shelley Wickstrom of Christ the King Lutheran Church.

Family Promise is actually a New Jersey-based nonprofit group that helps dozens of emergency housing networks across the country, and Wickstrom was familiar with the operation.

In June 2004, she invited a representative of the national group to come to Bozeman to explain the Family Promise model for addressing homelessness.

"Needless to say we all caught (the spirit)," Klingensmith said. "It was terribly contagious."

A dedication ceremony will take place Sunday at 209 S. Tracy Ave. at 3:30 p.m., followed by a 4:15 p.m. reception at Bozeman United Methodist Church, 121 S. Willson Ave.

For more information visit www.familypromisegv.org

A number of churches are participating in Family Promise of Gallatin Valley, Inc.

"Host" congregations invite families to sleep in their church, and they include:

€ Belgrade Community Church

€ Bozeman United Methodist Church

€ Christ the King Lutheran Church

€ First Baptist Church of Bozeman

€ First Lutheran Church

€ Hope Lutheran Church

€ Mt. Ellis Academy

€ Pilgrim Congregational Church

€ St. James Episcopal Church

"Partner" congregations support the groups hosting the families, and they include:

€ The Christian Center

€ Congregation Beth Shalom

€ Holy Rosary Catholic Church

€ Unitarian Universalists Fellowship

€ Unity Church

€ Friends Society

In addition, Family Promise welcomes new congregations and volunteers to join its network.

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