---

Ten Catholic parishes in the Albany Diocese have signed on to participate in Family Promise, an interfaith program to help homeless families find permanent housing and employment.

Some of the parishes will house three to five families on their properties for a week at a time, four times a year. Others will send volunteers to help prepare meals, set up living spaces, help children with homework and spend time with the guests.

Other Christian denominations in the Capital Region have also committed to hosting, and organizers hope other faith communities will be added to the list.

This local offshoot of the national Family Promise organization will be the fourth affiliate in New York State and one of 180 in the country when it debuts late this year or early next year. It has received support from the Homeless and Travelers Aid Society in Albany, which will help with intake and referrals.

Better solution
More than 600 families in Albany County alone requested shelter in 2012. Sometimes, families are separated when they enter a shelter; options that don't separate them include St. Catherine's Marillac Family Shelter in Albany and motels, but those sites get crowded.

"We needed to offer a more permanent solution," said Mary Giordano, a parishioner of Our Lady of the Americas Shrine Church, a mission of Blessed Sacrament parish in Albany. She will serve as director of the local organization. "We felt [motels weren't] a good environment for children, and we would be a needed alternative."

Along with Judy Houck, another OLA parishioner; Rev. Francis O'Connor, chaplain for the mission church; and a team from various churches, planning got off the ground in 2012. In addition to keeping families together, the Family Promise model aims to follow up with families for a year.

"Continuous support makes all the difference," Mrs. Giordano said, citing a national statistic that families become independent after less than three months of being housed through the program. "Faith-filled communities can do that."

Local sites
St. John the Evangelist and St. Joseph's parish in Rensselaer will be a host site, along with St. Kateri Tekakwitha in Schenectady, Mater Christi in Albany and either St. Madeleine Sophie parish in Schenectady or St. Gabriel the Archangel in Rotterdam, which share a pastor.

OLA and St. Vincent de Paul and St. Francis of Assisi parishes in Albany will be support sites. The Rensselaer site is getting help from other parishes in its cluster, including Sacred Heart in Castleton, St. Mary's in Clinton Heights and Holy Spirit in East Greenbush.

About 50 Catholics from the Rensselaer County parishes met last month to learn about getting involved; most of them have expressed interest in volunteering. Family Promise recommends having about 35 to 50 helpers during a host week.

"The more people we have, the more we can spread the responsibilities out," said Deacon Timothy Kosto, who's in ministry at St. Mary's and will coordinate the Rensselaer volunteers.

Parishioners are interested in decorating the Family Promise space for their guests, and some have already bought games and art supplies for the children they will house. They will put up dividers to create housing space in the Rensselaer parish hall, where they also have the ability to cook meals.

Happy to help
"There's a sense of participation. There's a warmth people feel, being able to participate in programs like this - being able to see things grow and change and get better," Deacon Kosto said. "We can do this with a smile on our face. There's so many things that we do glum."

He said his community hopes to "offer some friendship and companionship" to homeless families: "We haven't been in their shoes, but we can try to ensure that they don't feel alone. It takes a situation that often seems too big to handle and provides a way to share the responsibility with one another."

Parishioners at St. Kateri's are similarly excited.

"They're kind of amazed that this opportunity can come to us," said Rev. Robert Longobucco, pastor. "They like the idea of ownership. It's not our parish helping someone else do it. We wanted to make a commitment that would put more of our skin in the game."

St. Kateri's will use its parish center or convent for living space. The parish's social justice committee and pastoral council have endorsed the initiative.

Mater Christi will furnish its parish center with items like tables, nightstands and a television during its host weeks.

"We do plan to make it as homey a place as possible," said Anne Reutemann-Berroyer, the head of outreach and Christian service at the parish and the Family Promise coordinator there. "It's a good cause and it's a unique way to deal with homelessness."

What they do
Host sites provide dinner - some might cook on premises, while others might provide meals cooked by volunteers at home - and simple breakfasts. Sites must have two bathrooms, be able to provide privacy to the best of their ability in sleeping areas and have space for a sitting area and common area. All volunteers will receive Family Promise training, and Catholic volunteers will also be expected to go through Virtus child protection training.

Guests will shower, do laundry, and receive mail and transportation at a day center, which will be located at Koinonia Primary Care, an Albany medical practice. Koinonia is also donating a 15-passenger van. Family Promise is accepting donations and holding fundraisers to support the salaries of the director and two part-time van drivers. It seeks volunteer case managers.

Mrs. Giordano said she hopes to find more host sites and volunteers and that Catholic pastors were "immediately on board. It didn't take any persuading.

"This can be transforming for the volunteers," she continued. "I think they realize that part of being Catholic is living the Gospel. That means being your brother's keeper, seeing the face of Jesus in the poor. [Agencies try], but sometimes it requires faith-filled communities to step up and get involved." [[In-content Ad]]

---