Melissa Sierra had hit “rock bottom.” She had lost her job and home, and was out of money. Life was becoming increasingly difficult for Sierra and her six children. That’s when she turned to San Bernardino County for help and was referred to a collaborative program that provides rapid re-housing assistance to CalWORKs-eligible homeless families with children.
Sierra’s turnaround is the result of the Housing Support Program — a collaborative effort between the County’s Transitional Assistance Department, the Housing Authority and a local nonprofit called Knowledge and Education for Your Success (KEYS).
Rather than just provide housing options, the program works to get to the root of why a family is homeless. An individualized service plan is drawn up within 24 hours, identifying a family’s strengths and barriers to determine the quickest and most efficient way to permanently house the family and maintain stability.
But housing is not the only barrier that families run into, she added. They may come to you with a housing issue but what you find is the need may be employment, mental health, child care or transportation. “We need to make sure we connect them with everything that will help them be stable.”
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