Local Churches Provide Shelter for Homeless Families

While Maplewood has not been immune to the nation's ongoing economic woes, it is not a place where you typically expect to find homeless people.

But four homeless families have found shelter for the past week in the Parish Hall of St. George's Episcopal Church on Ridgewood Road, and on Sunday they will move on to a new temporary home down the street at Morrow Memorial Methodist Church.

They're participating in a shelter program run by Interfaith Hospitality Network of Essex County, a Montclair-based affiliate of Family Promise, a nationwide organization that last year provided services to more than 45,000 adults and children around the country.

IHN of Essex County was a pioneer of the concept. It became the second IHN organization in 1988, following the lead of IHN of Union County.

St. George's was a charter member of IHN in Essex County, and has partnered for years with Wyoming Presbyterian just over the border in Millburn to provide shelter to families in one-week increments. They alternate between the two facilities, and each church covers two weeklong shifts each year. When St. George's renovated its Parish Hall a few years ago, a bathroom with a shower was added specifically for the benefit of IHN guests.

Dell Akinkunle has been in the IHN shelter program for about three months, along with her children David, 9, and Anointing, 6. Between interruptions from her kids one recent evening, she told me that "I moved from New Jersey to Illinois for a job," but when the job didn't last, "I came back here homeless."

In addition to providing food and shelter, Dell said IHN is also working to help her find a job. "They helped me with my resume," and they provide computer access so she can look for work, she said. She has studied physical therapy at Bergen County College, but is not sure what kind of work she will be able to find.

She is deeply grateful to IHN, but tired of being constantly on the move.  Dave Berry, a board member at Wyoming Presbyterian and a longtime IHN volunteer, explained that families in the program typically "move from a synagogue to a church to a church to a synagogue," week after week.

Angela Bush was a homeowner in East Orange for 12 years, but after her husband left and she lost her job, the bank foreclosed on her home this year. At the dinner table with other IHN guests and volunteers, she urged her 13-year-old daughter Jayla to share the sonnet she had written in school. A volunteer took the piece of paper and gave an expressive reading of the well-constructed sonnet, to the delight of all within earshot. Jayla's proud mother said "she's really doing very well [in school], considering everything we're going through."

The families sleep at the host church and eat both dinner and breakfast there.  Church volunteers prepare and serve the meals and eat with the families, and the guests help clean up. Two church members also sleep in the building each night to be available in case of emergency.

During the day, the families leave the church building. Adults with jobs go to work, kids in school go to class, and others go to the IHN day center in Montclair, where they can meet with a social worker and have computer access to look for work. Every Sunday, they move on to a new location.

Tia Aery, Executive Director of IHN of Essex County, said that in addition to the shelter program, her organization runs a transitional housing program designed to help families bootstrap themselves into a permanent home. "One of the things we've learned in 21 years is that shelter alone is not the answer to homelessness," she said.

"We rent apartments and work with families" to integrate them into the community, Aery said. While the shelter program is free to the guests, families in the transitional program pay 30% of their income toward the rent, and bear their own utility costs. When the family is financially stable, "then they stay there as permanent tenants." There currently are two families in transitional apartments in Montclair.

Maplewood is well-represented in IHN. Aery said that in addition to St. George's, Wyoming and Morrow, Prospect Presbyterian participates in the program, as does Our Lady of Sorrows Roman Catholic Church, just over the border in South Orange. St. Joseph's Roman Catholic Church in Maplewood plans to begin participating next year.

Petersen is a parishioner at St. George's.  He blogs at All That Is Necessary.