Family Finds the Help They Need

Imagine that you’ve fallen on hard times and can’t make ends meet. You try everything you can but nothing works; in an effort to start over, you make arrangements to move to a new town. You line up a job and a place to live. Finally, you’re ready to go. So, you load your family onto a bus, begin the journey to the new place and arrive filled with hope. But the person you’ve arranged to meet never shows up; the job doesn’t happen...the place to live? A dream. Instead you are stranded in the middle of the night in the rain. A tragic, but true story....

Recently, a man, his pregnant wife, and their two children (ages four and five) came to our family shelter after being left stranded at a bus station. It is difficult to imagine their sense of despair, but they refused to give up. Instead, they quickly worked to establish a home of their own. The father soon found employment at a security company, and their five year old enrolled in school. Since opening our family shelter 5 years ago, we have been able to shorten the average stay for families and help them transition from shelter to safe, more permanent housing in a matter of a few short weeks. Being an organization that has been serving the Chattanooga community for 40 years, we were able to connect with a community partner to help this family with housing. We were able to move this family of four into a home of their own in just 16 days! As you can imagine, this family is incredibly grateful that their tragic story had a happy ending. The causes of homelessness can be beyond anyone’s control, but through your support, we can continue to offer help and hope.