FHN keeps families together and safe reducing their time in homelessness and supports them with dignity. Their experience 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.
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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.
Faith Family Hospitality (FFH), now Family Housing Network, 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 32 congregations in Fort Collins, of various faiths and denominations. Fourteen 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. Seventeen support congregations provide volunteers and meals. By housing four families each night, FHN has doubled Fort Collin's family sheltering capacity.
Our family-friendly Day Center expanded our reach by providing support services to our wait-listed, in addition to sheltered, guest families. There, families multitask and families do what families do, parents do loads of laundry as they shower and/or cook for their children while the children play or nap. And later while children rest, parents search for jobs and housing. All the while, knowing that they don't need to worry about their safety or their need for a safe place to sleep tonight.
John and Jamie were a nice middle-class family with seven children between the ages of 3 months and 17 years old. They are both from big families and wanted a big family of their own. John works full time in the construction business as a foreman and Jamie works on weekends as a photographer. During the week, Jamie homeschools her children. Their lives seemed to be a well-oiled machine over the years. Kids were happy, parents loved each other and then a troubled seventh pregnancy required Jamie to be hospitalized and for John to take time off of work to support the children at home and Jamie at the hospital. A couple months of hospitalization took a toll on their finances and their family. While John didn't lose his job, they were unable to keep up with the medical and household bills.
Shortly after the baby's arrival, their landlord decided to not renew their lease. They stayed in motels for a couple months and ended up at Faith Family Hospitality. During the five months at FFH, they were able to repay their debts, work on their credit, stabilize their children and regain their dignity. In the spring of 2018, they moved into a house with five bedrooms and became an independent family once again. "We didn't want to come into the shelter but it turned out to be the best thing for us. We are on our feet once again."
