A chance to have your name on a future neighborhood street in Manteca will help support one of the most successful homeless programs in the Northern San Joaquin Valley.
Raymus Homes is teaming with HOPE Family Shelters in the fundraiser involving 100 raffle tickets at $100 a piece for a chance to be able to name a future street.
Additional information on the street name raffle is available by calling (209) 665-7640. The winning ticket will be drawn in November.
HOPE Family Shelters CEO Cecily L. Ballungay said the new administration has pulled federal grant funding of $30,000.
While state and federal funding accounts for just 10 percent of the non-profit’s annual budget of $390,000, the loss will place a serious strain on HOPE’s ability to serve homeless families.
HOPE Ministries operates a family shelter west of downtown on Yosemite Avenue as well as a shelter for single moms and children in a former rest home on South Union Road. That is in addition to a six-unit transitional housing complex near Doctors Hospital where families can stay for up to two years and pay 30 percent of their income in rent.
HOPE Family Shelters now has a success rate of 52 percent of the families they assist being able to secure their own housing after their stay is completed.
That success rate is almost triple of what most shelters experience when people they assist temporarily move on.
One reason for the high success rate is the fact HOPE Ministries operates what is considered a high barrier shelter. That means those they help must be drug and alcohol free when they enter the program and stay that way.
If they stumble, they are out on the street. That said, people are given a second chance to return to the program if they stop using.
The bottom line is it forces most to realize that they are putting drugs and/or alcohol, ahead of their children.
Robust case management that includes working with clients to help them to make better financial decisions, working on behavioral factors that contributed to them ending up being homeless, along with mentoring for life skills make a major difference.
Many often have jobs when they become homeless but due to money managing skills or other issues, end up not being able to cover all costs including rent.
Because of HOPE Family Shelters’ approach that allows it to enjoy an unusually high success rate, securing federal and state grants is daunting.
Typically, families stay at the shelters for three months.
The non-profit formed by the Manteca Ministerial Association in 1993 relies on corporate and private donations for 90 percent of its annual $390,000 budget.
If has helped almost 6,000 people during the past 31 years, with the bulk of them children.
If you can help donate supplies that run the gamut from cleaning supplies to linens, call Ballungay at (209) 824-0658 or go to hopefamilyshelters.org.
To contact Dennis Wyatt, email dwyatt@mantecabulletin.com
