The InnBetween program is essential to helping families transition from homelessness to a more stable environment. Because homelessness creates a crisis for families, they are unable to tackle the hurdles that prevent them from attaining employment and a more stable environment for their children.
In this program, a client may stay for up to 18 months in a two or three bedroom home maintained within the City of Tallahassee. Currently, there are nine homes in Tallahassee. A case manager and counselor is retained on staff to work with the clients.
Clients are referred to the program by other homeless service providers who think they qualify. An intensive screening process is then undertaken. The adult family member must be free of substance abuse and able to seek employment. When a client is accepted into the program, they agree to follow a case plan they design with the assistance of the case manager. The primary goal is for them to support their own household upon graduating from the program. The case plan may include:
- Acquiring a GED
- Attending Lively Technical Center, Its My Turn,
Tallahassee Community College, and BEND
- Participating in other job training programs
and nutritional training through Leon County Extension Service
- Learning budget counseling through Consumer Credit Counseling.
While in the program, clients pay 30% of their adjusted income in shelter fees. An amount equal to the telephone bill and the utilities is deposited with the program as a client fee. The remaining amount, if any, is placed into an escrow account and returned to the client upon graduation for rent and utility deposits. Each client is guaranteed no less than 10% of their program fees will be placed in escrow for graduation.
The client is also expected to maintain the home in which they reside. Housekeeping skills are taught, if necessary. They are expected to maintain the yards with equipment provided by the program. Major items like painting, repairing plaster and wood damage is done by volunteers, when possible.
Collaboration is the key element of this program. The case manager/counselor participates on a regular basis in the monthly networking meeting held by the Tallahassee Coalition for the Homeless. Client outreach is conducted through Refuge House, The Shelter, The Salvation Army, Neighborhood Heath Services and other homeless service providers. The individual needs of each client, as determined by their case plan, are referred to the appropriate area agency or institution. Eight churches and civic organizations provide program and client support on an on-going basis.
The primary impact on clients served by this program is development of self-esteem and self-knowledge that they can successfully remove themselves from the homeless population and provide for their children. In many cases it may be as simple as having a home and utilities provided until a financial stability can be established. In other cases the need ranges from intensive counseling and medications to acquiring a GED and a job skill. One bench mark looked for is when the clients cease to use the same old excuses and begin to realize that there is no need for an excuse, just determination and hard work. Clients enter this program totally dependent on public assistance and leave with a vision of being totally independent in the future.
The community at-large is effected in several ways by this program. The most often touted is that families leaving this program are receiving fewer public dollars through the welfare system.
A recent family in the program came receiving $338.00 in Food Stamps, $364.00 in cash assistance, and an average of $400.00 per month in Medicaid for an asthmatic child's medical bills. That is a total of $13,224.00 annually. When the family graduated, the mother was working full time. The family no longer received Food Stamps or cash assistance and were covered by insurance through the mother's employer. They are however, receiving $400.00 in Public Housing Assistance. The net savings to the community is $8,424.00 annually.
The program costs on the average per family is only $4,816.00. The communities "payback" period, after allowing for the families that do not successfully complete the program, is less than one year. But this may not be the most valuable impact the program has on the community. The mother of the above family is now holding down a job, is active in her son's Parent/Teacher/Student Association, active in her family of faith and spends time volunteering in the community. There is a new element of togetherness exhibited by the family. The children are no longer insecure in their family surroundings and are developing a more secure sense of self worth. It is the impact this program has on the children, and in turn on their children, that will provide the greatest benefit to the community.
