The Changing Face of Homelessness
Part 5

The next step along the continuum of care for a homeless family might be transitional housing, programs that provide longer-term stays while women get an education or job training.

Located at St. Joseph's Villa in Henrico County, the nonprofit Flagler Home provides housing, job training, counseling, childcare assistance and financial planning for up to 27 families.

Women have two years to complete the program.

Flagler sets strict admission criteria. A mother must be referred by a shelter, at least 21 years old and free of active substance abuse for at least one year. She must have custody of at least one child but no more than three, and all children must be 10 ½ or younger on admission.

Expectations are rigorous as well. The mother must get a GED within the first six months and pursue training to improve job opportunities. In addition she must develop and follow a family life plan, abide by a family budget, meet weekly with a family counselor and attend group meetings on a regular basis. Children must attend daycare and school on a regular basis.

The families live in two cottages, and each has shared kitchen, laundry and living and play areas. Families have their own private living quarters, including a bathroom.

Crystil Lake Sanders, an educational counselor there, said the most of the women are motivated, and many are interested in getting an education.

"Their motivation is I want a better life for my kids," she said.

After working there for almost three years, Sanders has seen many families come and go, and like Murchie, she gets tired of the stereotypes about homelessness.

"When you have women not able to make living wage, more women find themselves in situations where they lose their home," she said.

"Domestic violence is still rampant. It's scary to see," she said. She estimates that 60 percent of the women come to Flagler to flee abuse.

Sanders said that the average woman attempts to leave an abuser seven times before she finally succeeds.

"Usually women endure it (abuse) until the children are affected," she said. "We have a lot of children who have seen domestic abuse."

Sanders said that most of the women have two or three children, and 40 percent are under age five - numbers fairly typical across the nation.

Sanders works to get schools to meet the needs of homeless students and helps the families with schools.

She also provides parenting classes for mothers as well as educational enrichment and social and cultural activities for the families.

In addition, the staff strives to detect problems such as developmental delays and tend to the health of the children.

One part of that is working on nutrition education for the families, particularly ones with young children because the first three years of life are vital for brain development.

"Women lack prenatal care and it all starts in utero," she said. "If you didn't have good nutrition that's going to affect brain development, and I can't imagine that won't affect the child down the road," she said.

Like ESI, Flagler tries to help the families get access to health care, welfare and other services.

Many of the families are on TANF and Food Stamps, and roughly half get child support.

Although Flagler tries to provide as many supports as it can, psychologically, homelessness puts many stresses on children, Sanders said.

"You move around three or four times, you think it doesn't affect a 4-year old but it does," she said. "It shows up in behavior: clinginess to mom, getting sick more.

"I've seen some anger issues, say a 3-year old who's witnessed domestic violence. They act out. They do what they see. Or they're angry because they've been taken from the only place they've known…it's scary.

"Kids are resilient. They are so adaptable. But they can only take so much. They need support through that," she said.

And Sanders said the public needs to know about the extent of the problem.

"Children are experiencing homelessness and they are the fastest-growing population, and what are we going to do about it as a community, as a society," she said. "What supports are we going to put in place to help families experiencing homelessness?"

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