FHN keeps families together, safe while reducing their time in homelessness supporting them with dignity. This results in fewer disruptions-for both parents and children - to education, medical care, and family, peer, and work life. They need your help to regain their self-sufficiency.
Family Housing Network's mission is to support families experiencing homelessness in order for them to achieve sustainable self-sufficiency in a timely and dignified manner.
We provide a full range of emergency and stabilizing services needed by our guest parents and children, in collaboration with a diverse set of faith communities and partner agencies.
Family Housing Network, formerly Faith Family Hospitality, was formed in January 2012 by sixteen faith communities to meet a pressing need for emergency shelter in Larimer County for families experiencing homelessness. The Catholic Charities Mission offered four rooms for families and was consistently full. The Fort Collins Rescue Mission did not serve people under 18.
Initially, the focus was on providing overnight shelter, meals, and hospitality from 5 pm to 7 am each night. However, it soon became apparent that, in order to provide lasting impact, our mission needed to be broadened to help homeless families achieve independence. The support needed to attain this expanded mission is significantly more extensive in terms of staffing, facilities, and services. Thus, we continue to expand our services along the continuum of care from homelessness to sustainable self-sufficiency.
FHN's membership has grown to include 29 congregations in Fort Collins, of various faiths and denominations. Usually fifteen congregations take turns acting as host sites to shelter and feed four guest families (up to 22 adults and children) for a week at a time while fourteen support congregations provide volunteers and meals. COVID 19 has made 2020 different. Guest families have been staying at Foothills Unitarian Church while volunteers from all faith communities have rotated through providing for families' basic needs, food, safety and shelter.
Our family-friendly Day Center offers support services to our sheltered and unsheltered families. Families multitask and do what families do. Parents wash loads of laundry as they shower and/or cook for their children while the children play or nap. Later parents search for jobs and housing. During COVID 19, children are able to complete school work. All the while, knowing they don't need to worry about their safety or the potential of causing more trauma for their children.
On June 15, 2020, a new day center opened at 1606 S. Lemay Ave. Suite 103, Fort Collins. It is a dignified space where both sheltered and unsheltered families experiencing homelessness can come during the day to multitask and regain their foundation.
In October 2020, FHN acquired the Rapid Rehousing program from One Community One Family offering financial subsidies to up to 50 Larimer County families each year.
In September 2021, the Sherwood House opened to serve Larimer County's most vulnerable families experiencing homelessness with supportive housing for up to a year while working with them to secure permanent supports for their future.
