VINCARE SERVICES OF AUSTIN FOUNDATION

The mission of Saint Louise House is to empower women and their children to overcome homelessness for generations to come. Our vision is a central Texas community where every family can thrive together in safe, stable housing.

Our goals are that families will stay together and build self-sufficiency. Their basic needs of food, shelter, safety, and healthcare must be met. In addition, mothers must be able to improve their education and employment opportunities, increase their financial literacy and money management skills, and resolve legal and other issues that are barriers to self-sufficiency. Children need stability, support for improved social and emotional well-being so they can heal from the wounds of homelessness, and safe, nurturing care whether they are in school or childcare.

Our strategy for achieving our goals is to provide women-led families the combination of stable housing and wraparound services they need to develop self-sufficiency.

The heart of our approach is the partnership between case managers and mothers. Through weekly meetings focused on identifying strengths and resources, this partnership gives mothers the highly-individualized support they need to develop self-sufficiency. They work together to set and work toward goals in education, employment, financial literacy, money management, health, parenting, and legal and other areas. Because families come to us from a wide variety of backgrounds and experiences, there is no uniform program or time limit for participation. Each family works with their case manager to develop a plan and a timeline for gaining the tools and resources they need .

Additional services offered on site include a food pantry, counseling, employment services, life skills workshops, and children's services.

Saint Louise House has 20 years of experience supporting women-led families on their journeys out of homelessness. We have provided pathways out of poverty for over 200 families.

By providing stable housing and wraparound services, Saint Louise House has an over 90% success rate of families maintaining stability at Saint Louise House or on exit. In addition, more than 90% of families increase their self-sufficiency while in our program.

Since our founding in 2000, Saint Louise House has provided stable housing and essential support services to over 200 families. Every year over 90% of families served increase self-sufficiency and maintain stable housing at Saint Louise House or on exit.

Saint Louise House has grown from serving five families in rented apartments to two agency-owned apartment complexes where we currently serve families in 46 apartments. With a waiting list of families who call us every month in order to maintain their status on our waiting list, we are deeply committed to expanding our program to serve more families at a time. While we continue to solidify the growth we have achieved, we are also exploring possibilities for future growth so that we can meet the need for supportive housing for single mothers and their children in Central Texas.