A family’s stability begins with having a place to call home. Without a safe home, finding employment or regularly attending school are virtually impossible. For too many families in the Puget Sound region, the segue out of homelessness and into a stable home has proved to be a dismal cycle of staying at temporary shelters, moving in and out of motel rooms, or sleeping in a car.

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation created the Sound Families Initiative to help break that cycle. When families can transition out of homelessness and into a safe home with case managers dedicated to providing services such as job training or domestic abuse counseling, families can once again find stability in permanent housing.

For Intercommunity Housing, a statewide nonprofit housing provider, Sound Families has become an ideal partner.

“Intercommunity’s mission is to create healthy communities through the provision of quality, affordable, service-enriched housing for individuals and families who are economically poor,” says Walter Zisette, Intercommunity Housing’s vice president for community development. “We’ve created more than 500 housing units for very low-income families in King, Pierce and Snohomish counties.”

In response to the homelessness crisis experienced by women and children, Intercommunity Housing was founded in 1992 by five Orders of Catholic Women Religious: the Dominican Sisters of Tacoma, the Sisters of Providence, the Sisters of St. Joseph of Peace, the Sisters of the Holy Names of Jesus and Mary, and the Dominican Sisters of Edmonds. Intercommunity Housing is a member of the Mercy Housing System, a nationwide network of regional nonprofit agencies that has developed more than 13,000 units of affordable housing and provides crucial services such as job training, child care, and drug and alcohol counseling.

Intercommunity Housing’s collaboration with the Sound Families program began at the Lincoln Way Apartments in Lynnwood, where 15 two- and three-bedroom homes are reserved for program participants and case management services are led by Volunteers of America. At Lincoln Way apartments, participants of the transitional housing program – including residents living in units funded by the Sound Families program – have access to intensive family support programs for a limited period of time (usually one year) as well as the quality affordable homes from which all residents of Lincoln Way benefit. The goal, once participants graduate from the transitional program, is for those families to remain within the Lincoln Way community by moving into permanently affordable rental units where some supportive services remain available.

Intercommunity Housing’s collaboration with Sound Families continued with the dedication of the Eliza B. McCabe and Hillside Garden Townhomes in the Hilltop neighborhood of Tacoma. In these developments, 18 of a total 65 units are reserved for Sound Families program participants.

In both Lynnwood and Tacoma, program participants benefit from quality affordable housing and a commitment to on-site resident services and community amenities.

As a result, homeless families are becoming stable and self-sufficient once again. In a letter to his former case manager, Jesse, who lived with his family at the Lincoln Way apartment complex, writes:

One year ago my family was homeless. My wife and I have a 3-year-old daughter. We relocated here to Washington from Kentucky. Our intention at the time was for me to gain employment and my wife as well. Unfortunately, I became ill and was diagnosed with kidney failure. I am now on dialysis.

We arrived in Everett with limited funds. At first, we stayed in a motel. When our funds had depleted, we were referred to Volunteers of America. VOA paid our weekly motel rent a few times and helped us with food and child care while we were looking for work. As we were looking for shelter and housing, our case manager at VOA introduced us to the transitional housing program at Lincoln Way.

For one year we participated in the program and had a safe place to live. We learned about budgeting, nutrition, saving, and how to get our finances in order while at Lincoln Way. When we left the program at Lincoln Way, we were awarded a Section 8 voucher that we now use in a lovely three-bedroom house where we are working to become more self-sufficient every day!

"We’re grateful to have the support of the Sound Families program and our many local partners,” says Zisette. "Intercommunity is proud to partner with Sound Families to provide the two critical components required for a family to regain self-sufficiency: basic life skills and resources provided through on-site case managers, and a safe place to live within a community environment that promotes long-term stability. We're finding this is an effective strategy to combat this region's homelessness crisis."

At BuildingChanges.org, we invite you to read more about how Sound Families and the Washington Families Fund are helping families to change their lives for the better.