Homeless Shelter Sees More Kids Than Ever Before

By: Adam Uhernik - Email

Updated: Thu 9:41 PM, Mar 21, 2013

Hope Harbor Seeing More Kids

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More information from Hope Harbor:

Transitional Shelter: 56 beds. Provides shelter, meals and intensive case management support services to residents who are seeking permanent housing and stability. Individualized case planning within our Stepping Stones Program.

Stepping Stones Program: This is a 5 "Stone" Program within our Transitional Shelter which focuses on 5 key life skill areas to enable self-sufficiency. Stones are Education (Including our SOAR Education program), Employment and Planning, Financial Stability, Maintenance and Housing, and Self-Sufficiency.

SOAR Education Program: Stands for Skills, Opportunities, Achievements, and Rewards. Components of the program include parenting, budgeting, and fiscal literacy, Financial Peace University, critical thinking, accessing higher education, nutrition education, spiritual life, addiction education, employment skills and job search, and life skills education. Hope Harbor partners with other area organizations to provide these and other class offerings when possible.

Mental Health Matters: Is a program targeted at Transitional Shelter residents who have no private, state, or other benefits which cover mental health therapy. Through MHM these residents are provided with on-site individual or family therapy with a qualified Licensed Mental Health Practitioner at no cost to them. The program is geared towards those who do not already have these supports in place and are not intended to replace current services.

Emergency Shelter: 12 beds. Offers women and children temporary shelter. Length of stay is usually 1 to 3 nights.

General Assistance: Provides the area's near homeless women, children, and families with meals, travel vouchers, clothing, household goods, furniture, hygenie items, and referral services.

It's been a busy year for a local homeless shelter, and they are taking in more kids than ever before.

Hope Harbor in Grand Island, is a busy place.

"Currently here today I think we have 33 children in the shelter," said Executive Director Melissa DeLaet.

The homeless shelter has served more kids in the last six months than in all its previous years.

"We are seeing a lot of moms coming in that are trying to get their lives back on track and they have a couple of children with them," said DeLaet.

At the end of last year they saw families with six or seven kids coming to the shelter, which caused a spike in the numbers.
Keeping case managers busy.

"It's a blessing and a challenge at the same time because we want to be able to help as many people as possible," said Case Manager Elizabeth Rhodes.

Helping others is a tough task, especially with limited space, but the need for help keeps coming.

"Especially in rural Nebraska you don't expect to see upwards of sixty people staying at the homeless shelter each night and really thats where we are at," said DeLaet.

Hope Harbor launched a new self sufficiency support program..
It's to help residents when they leave the shelter.
So they aren't completely on their own.

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