The Rev. Dr. Martin J. Rafanan, Executive Director of Gateway Homeless Services, is now hosting a blog devoted to current issues related to homelessness on this site.

You can also follow him on twitter: http://twitter.com/mjr9201

Dr. Rafanan's profile is available on Linkedin:

http://www.linkedin.com/in/martinrafanan

The National Alliance to End Homelessness has released new research focusing on the strategic efforts of communities to end family homelessness. 

  ending_family_homelessness.pdf 137.33 Kb 05/08/2010, 09:08

This information is of particular interest to Gateway Homeless Services as we find ways to move homeless women and children quickly from our emergency shelter into transitional or permanent housing.  Gateway's role is to stabilize a homeless family and help that family organize documents and prepare for referral to housing.  This is not a simple task.  Gateway staff and each of our clients must remain focused in order to reach the outcome desired.  Each client must work very hard to complete a file and to prepare themselves for the referral process.  The final placement is achieved as a client completes arrangements with a transitional or permanent housing partner.

Gateway staff and clients work collaboratively to reach our goal.  I often tell visitors to Gateway that achieving placement is the client's responsibility.  What Gateway provides is an environment of empowerment.  That environment includes the challenging living conditions at our shelter and the attention that clients receive from one of the most effective client support teams in the nation.  The numbers don't lie.  Gateway's performance, measured as the average length of stay of our clients in our facility and their placement into new housing, is unparalleled in Missouri and competitive across the nation. 

Gateway works to "rapidly re-house" homeless women and children.  We have reduced the average length of stay in our facility from 128 days in 2007 to 26 days in 2010 and we have placed over 200 women and chidlren into housing this year.

Our work has been recognized locally and nationally.  Now, Gateway has been asked to open transitional housing for large families.  With the help of our collaborative partners in St. Louis and a major grant from Housing and Urban Development's Supportive Housing Program, we will begin this new service in 2011.

Join us in the work of ending homelessness for each of the families in our shelter and for the many more who need services in St. Louis!