A Way Home

Photograph by Diana Walker

Homeless families face myriad challenges that can reach far beyond the need to secure permanent housing. In Northern Virginia, the Adopt-A-Family program helps families find jobs, child care, and other kinds of support needed for long-term stability and success.

Part of the Arlington-Alexandria Coalition for the Homeless, the program shows people how to obtain low-cost apartments and subsidizes a portion of the rent, in addition to providing employment training and arranging mental-health counseling. Each family works with three counselors, one who visits several times a month to plan budgets and offer advice, another who helps with employment and education, and a third who ensures that children’s academic and health-care needs are met.

Participants, who are referred from local homeless shelters, must show a commitment to improving their circumstances. For example, the program accepts only people who are free of alcohol or drug addiction and who demonstrate a desire to clean up a bad credit record and save money. Families can stay in the program for up to two years. Eighty percent of participants remain in permanent housing a year after finishing the program.

“Clients need to increase their education or training so they can find better employment, pay down past debt, and increase savings,” says Lorraine Davis-Dantley, director of the Adopt-A-Family program. “Those three things help stabilize the family so that it increases the chance of being able to maintain permanent housing.”

The Arlington-Alexandria Coalition for the Homeless, which also operates a short-term homeless shelter, has a $1.4-million budget. Eighty percent of it comes from government grants, and the remainder from individual donations and foundation grants.

Here, a counselor helps a formerly homeless woman work out a budget.