Hockessin church provides shelter for homeless family

At Grace Lutheran Church, the problem of homelessness just got a lot closer to home.

The Hockessin church has opened its doors to give food and shelter to a homeless family of four, the first to be enrolled in Family Promise of Northern New Castle County, a nonprofit outreach program that officially kicked off on March 9.

For the family, a single expecting mother with three children, the Family Promise program is a way for them to stay together while they find their way into affordable housing, explained Grace Lutheran Church Pastor Paul Lundmark.

Traditional shelters often divide up homeless families, since men and women cannot sleep in the same place, Lundmark explained.

“If they’re separated, that kicks up a whole new set of problems for them,” he said. “But if they’re together, that’s a better start.”

Through Family Promise, a 20-year-old ministry begun by a Lutheran in Summit, N.J., the family will stay together, sleeping and eating meals for the week at Grace before moving on to another congregation – one of 11 in the program – that will house the family for another week.

During the day, the children attend school while their mother either goes to work or spends time at the Family Promise Day Center on St. James Church Road, where she’ll have computer access and counselors to help her search for work, find affordable housing or manage her finances, Lundmark said.

The day center also provides a place for the family to take showers and do laundry and it gives them an address, something necessary for enrollment in many social programs and an essential component of job hunting, he said.

The goal is to try and transition the family into affordable housing within 90 days.

“We don’t want this to be a permanent address for somebody. We want to move them up to the next level,” said Nancy Goyda, a member of Grace who is coordinating Family Promise at the church.

Family Promise has a capacity for 14 people and the church is prepared to house three to four families, Goyda said. At the church each evening, they’ll share dinner and then volunteers will help the kids with their homework or just spend time with the families, she said, before they go to bed in converted Sunday school rooms. Then, they’ll be served breakfast each morning before they head off to school, work or the day center, she said.

And even though they’re being housed in a church, Goyda said the goal of the program is not evangelism -- it's family support.

About 50 volunteers at Grace will work together to make sure the families are comfortable and enjoy their stay, she said. And while there were some initial concerns about inviting strangers into the church, discussion, prayers and safeguards put the concerns to rest, she said. Each family receives a background check and personal interview with Family Promise Executive Director Tamikah Gowans before being enrolled in the program.

“Yes, we’re a little bit out of our comfort zone, but this is what being a follower of Jesus is all about,” she said.

One of the amazing things about Family Promise is how so many different Christians have come together to make it work, Lundmark said. The list of supporting congregations includes Lutherans, Baptists, Presbyterians, Methodists and Catholics.

Most were represented at the grand opening of the Family Promise Day Center on March 9, where many got their first look at the converted house provided by St. James Episcopal Church.

Nearly everything in the house was donated, Gowans said, from the PCs in the resource room to the educational video games the children will be able to play upstairs to the shower and laundry machines in the basement.

Now that the day center is ready, Gowans expects Family Promise to quickly reach its capacity – a testament to the need for a homeless family ministry in New Castle County.

There are more than 2,000 homeless children in Delaware, according to Family Promise, but the organization is about more than giving them a leg up, she said, it’s about giving them hope.

“We would like to give them a homey feeling even in the midst of their unsettledness,” she said.