Inter-Faith Housing Alliance

In the more than 25 years we have worked with families, we recognize that a 90-day stay in an emergency shelter is rarely, if ever, enough time to heal from the traumas that impede positive life changes. In response to this significant need, IFHA opened Hope Gardens in 1995 to serve as a stabilizing transitional housing program. Families referred to IFHA by Montgomery County’s Your Way Home are housed for up to 2 years, during which time they receive comprehensive support services and work towards identified goals for a successful transition to safe, affordable, decent housing.

Hope Gardens continues to operate with the goal of providing a program that offers supportive case management services, therapeutic counseling, and safe, affordable rental units to homeless families progressing from crisis to stability. The program is located in an eight-unit building consisting of two-, three-, and four-bedroom apartments where families can live while they gain the tools they need to become successfully independent, therefore breaking the cycle of homelessness many find themselves in. Families living at Hope Gardens receive comprehensive support services to help ensure their success, including:

• Intensive case management – Case management staff helps each family at Hope Gardens develop practical, attainable goals, which include creating a workable budget, obtaining childcare, finding employment, applying for subsidized and permanent housing, and creating a savings plan.
• Therapeutic counseling – Each parent residing at Hope Gardens may receive weekly on-site individual counseling. Therapeutic counseling is critical to our clients’ intentionally improving their life skills and decision-making abilities, and developing the internal resources necessary to be self-sufficient.
• Life skills training – Families living at Hope Gardens participate in a series of educational workshops, which focus on topics such as financial literacy, budgeting and credit repair, positive parenting, stress management, and healthy relationships.

Our fourth program at Inter-Faith Housing Alliance – our Supportive Housing Program at Hope Forest - opened in January 2017. This exciting project is serving as a permanent housing demonstration project in Montgomery County. The Supportive Housing Program offers two families an affordable housing option in the heart of Ambler. Through a partnership with First Presbyterian Church of Ambler, IFHA was gifted this two-family home to provide the first privately operated supportive housing program in Montgomery County.

During the last half of the 2016 fiscal year, IFHA partnered with multiple volunteer groups who provided in-kind donations and hands-on help to make the house move-in ready. We are particularly proud of this partnership and are honored by the commitment and trust of First Presbyterian Church. Because the program is funded with private money, we can mirror best practices while affording a high degree of programming flexibility that other permanent housing programs that are government funded cannot. The Supportive Housing Program is one of our most notable organizational accomplishments in our over 25-year history.

As reported in the Corporation for Supportive Housing’s July 2014 issue, "access to safe, quality, affordable housing – and the supports necessary to maintain that housing – constitute one of the most basic and powerful social determinants of health.” Families pay fair market rent and receive general oversight from a case manager on a diminishing schedule until they have secured necessary skills to gain and maintain a living wage job and have resolved the debilitating issues that have been a barrier to stability in their past.

A relatively new program developed as an extension of the Education Program and our general evaluation efforts, the Aftercare Program was implemented to increase the long-term stability and housing tenancy of formerly homeless families who graduated from IFHA’s transitional and emergency shelter programs by providing limited case management, financial assistance, and holiday programs. These recent graduates receive support services at a time when they are most vulnerable – living in permanent housing for the first time since becoming homeless. Some families continue to receive support services from IFHA to ensure their independence and self-sufficiency, such as access to the on-site food pantry and copier/fax machine.

Currently overseen by a volunteer, the After Care Specialist stays in regular contact with graduate families who have moved on to permanent housing to support their continued advancements and offer resources as needed to keep the families on track. While supporting families, the After Care Specialist also learns about specific challenges the families face so we can make adjustments to our education program and support services to better prepare our current residents for a successful transition to permanent housing. Ensuring the stability of this currently volunteer-provided service is a future goal.

When families enter our housing program, many have had to leave valuable possessions behind. They arrive with few personal goods and often lack even the most basic essential items. Once safely housed in our program, the need for basic supplies continues – they often lack household goods essential for day-to-day household maintenance and functionality, and maintaining adequate food can be a continuing challenge. Even upon graduating from our programs, families remain vulnerable for some time to disruptions in their stability while they work at building their assets and maintenance of consistent, adequate income. This year we began building our Basic Needs Program to provide comprehensive support in the form of basic needs supplies and temporary financial assistance to cover expenses that threaten to disrupt a family’s progress towards stability.

The Inter-Faith Food Cupboard is located at 1356 Easton Road in Roslyn, PA. Open six days a week, the Food Cupboard is an important way in which IFHA supports Montgomery County families who are experiencing hunger as a result of poverty. The program provides a variety of foods to low-income residents of Montgomery County to reduce food insecurity and improve nutrition. It is a "choice” pantry, where participants are able to select the foods that they are most likely to prepare and eat.

Inter-Faith Housing Alliance has been awarded Federal Emergency Food and Shelter Program CARES funding and is making rental relief available for qualifying Montgomery County renters who have been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.