denver homeless initiative
Family and Senior Homeless Initiative (FSHI) is Mayor Hickenlooper's call to the faith community for 1,000 congregations to embrace and mentor 1,000 homeless families during the city's ten year plan to end homelessness. The plan, called Denver's Road Home, was instituted in 2005. As of January 31, 2010, 265 congregations have answered the call, and 670 families and seniors have bee partnered with faith community mentor teams and moved into permanent housing.
FSHI pairs a faith community mentor team with a homeless family or senior to provide the first month's rent and deposit, as well as mentoring, with the end goal of sustainable permanent housing. Trained mentors offer the family physical, spiritual, financial, and emotional assistance for four to six months, over a minimum of seven meetings.
Thanks to the efforts of the faith community, 2,089 individuals have been placed in housing and 85% of families who had been mentored are still in housing one year later! A number of cities have modeled programs after the Family and Senior Homeless Initiative, such as Las Vegas, Portland, Fort Collins, Dallas, Boise, and Knoxville.
Our network of churches in the Denver face a golden opportunity. We could potentially take the lead in helping homeless families and seniors. To invest ourselves in this "turn-key" opportunity would lead to showing many people the love of Jesus through our words and actions! To participate in the FHSI program will change our churches for the better as we help the poor in the name of Jesus.
Our network of churches in the Denver face a golden opportunity. We could potentially take the lead in helping homeless families and seniors. To invest ourselves in this "turn-key" opportunity would lead to showing many people the love of Jesus through our words and actions! To participate in the FHSI program will change our churches for the better as we help the poor in the name of Jesus.
why get involved?
What is the Opportunity? As many of you know, the mayor of Denver is asking for our help to address poverty and homelessness in Denver. Through a program endorsed by the city of Denver, championed by the Denver Leadership Foundation, and coord... [more]
What is the Opportunity? As many of you know, the mayor of Denver is asking for our help to address poverty and homelessness in Denver. Through a program endorsed by the city of Denver, championed by the Denver Leadership Foundation, and coord... [more]