Three women gathered around a table in the conference room at HomeFront’s headquarters on Princeton Avenue in Lawrence Township.
They were visiting the nonprofit social service agency during its annual “Week of Hope,” held Jan. 19-25, which aims to raise awareness of homelessness and to let the community know how it can help.
In front of the three women on the table was a board game called “Survival” – but it is not a board game that could be purchased in a store at the mall or online.
The goal of the game, which was created by Connie Mercer, HomeFront’s founder and chief executive officer, is to find a way for a family to “survive” on take-home pay of $1,425 per month.
Out of that monthly income, the women discovered, “Mom” has to pay $1,020 rent for a two-bedroom apartment and also cover about $600 worth of transportation, food, utilities and child care costs – excluding miscellaneous stuff.
Not an easy task, the women discovered. They brainstormed how many ways the could stretch the money – relying on food pantries, ride-sharing, applying for help from the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program for utility bills, and just simply putting off paying some bills.
But if it still doesn’t work out and “Mom” falls behind on the rent or loses her job, she and her three children will be out on the street and knocking on HomeFront’s front door.
That is not an unusual scenario, said Mercer, whose nonprofit group fields hundreds of calls from homeless families, as well as the working poor – those who earn just enough to get by, but who rely on HomeFront’s food pantry and other services.
HomeFront, which helps the homeless and the working poor, grew out of the need to find homes for homeless families that were living in motels along Route 1 in Lawrence Township. The effort was spearheaded by Mercer and a local civic group.
Mercer said a contributing factor in homelessness has been the ongoing reductions by the federal government for housing subsidies. If “Mom” could find a landlord who would accept so-called “Section 8” housing vouchers, the rent would be about $360 per month, she said.
But in the meantime, it is up to HomeFront to help its clients survive and thrive.
HomeFront is organized around four pillars of support for its families – providing safe and secure housing; providing the families the tools they need to become self-sufficent; offering a resource network; and providing support for children, said Sarah Steward, HomeFront’s chief operating officer.
HomeFront’s emergency shelter is almost always full, Steward said. But in addition to the emergency shelter, HomeFront offers permanent, affordable and supportive housing in apartments throughout Mercer County. It also offers a homeless prevention program that offers emergency financial assistance.
“We manage 120 units of permanent affordable housing in Mercer County,” Steward said. “It’s not only housing. It comes with support services if they need help. We want to prevent homelessness in the first place.”
“We have a hotline, and we get about 40 calls a day for help. We have spent about $500,000 to pay (overdue) rent. From a human perspective, it’s much better (to keep families in housing). Children who experience homelessness do worse in school. It has even more (negative) impacts than being poor,” Steward said.
HomeFront provides its clients with the tools they need to keep on track – everything from job training to formal life skills, where they learn to cook and sew. There is educational support through the WorkFirst and Hire Expectations programs.
“We offer parenting and cooking classes. If you can take some dry beans and turn them into three meals, that’s much different (because it stretches the available food),” she said.
Because homeless and very low-income families need the basic necessities, HomeFront offers a food pantry, furniture for their apartments through its “Furnish the Future” program, and a store where they can find clothing and other necessities for free.
For the children “who are at the very heart of HomeFront,” Steward said, the nonprofit agency offers back-to-school and Christmas wish drives and an eight-week summer camp. It also offers a pre-school program that includes an early HeadStart program, and after-school enrichment programming.
“Those four core beliefs are what animates our program,” Mercer said.
