09 Aug What We’re Seeing Right Now in Montgomery County

We got a call from a 62-year-old woman last month. She was single, and she’d been evicted. She had nowhere to go. When she called the county’s housing services hotline, she was offered a tent.

There is no shelter serving single people in our county—one of the wealthiest in Pennsylvania—with the Coordinated Homeless Outreach Center (CHOC) in Norristown now closed. (Thankfully, there is shelter available for families, including our Interfaith Hospitality Network, although there is a waiting list for space right now.)

How can you help? There are three things you can do to advocate for people who need a safe place to sleep.

First, you can call your government representatives (county, state, and federal) and tell them that a plan to shelter single people is needed.

Second, you can sign this petition, at HereForUs.org, to ask the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania to partner with Montgomery County to provide space for a temporary shelter until the relocated CHOC can open.

Third, if you are a landlord in Montco, you can help open up shelter space for everyone by partnering with us to rent apartments to our graduates. There’s a severe lack of affordable housing in the county, and it’s creating a bottleneck; families are ready to exit but can’t find a rental. And as soon as a family exits our shelter, another can enter and start working toward self-sufficiency.

We’re grateful for your support of Family Promise, whether you donate, volunteer with us, attend our events, or support the Interfaith Hospitality Network. Please consider making your voice heard in support of people who need safe and affordable homes today!