As 2024 draws to a close, I wanted to share a note of gratitude for the extraordinary people and organizations that have supported our work this year.

Clark Public Utilities District provided a community grant to help us upgrade the heating systems and add air conditioning to 22 of our units that house our most vulnerable residents — previously homeless families with children. This project was completed by the great people at Area Heating & Cooling.

The Firstenburg Foundation supported our Resident Retention Program with a generous donation that will help us keep residents safe and stable in their homes.

100 Men Who Care generously donated to help with our transitional housing properties and operating expenses.

To all of our donors, partners, and those of you who continue to support our work each day — Thank you!

Thank you for being with us in this critical work.

Thank you for helping your neighbors in need.

Thank you for caring.

All the best,

Tim Foley

Can you imagine living in your car with two young children? For some of our residents, this is the brutal reality they are trying to escape.

Women and their young kids are especially vulnerable when they don’t have a safe place to live. Second Step knows the harsh challenges of living and parenting on the streets – nearly all of the residents in our transitional properties are unhoused single moms. 

We do everything we can to help these families settle in, catch their breath, and start building a future. Kids get back in school. Parents find jobs. Health challenges get attention.  

A safe home is the foundation for a family’s stability.

In our transitional properties, we provide everything a family needs to be comfortable: kitchen basics, towels, cleaning and laundry supplies, warm blankets, beds, and furniture. We give families the best possible start toward building a comfortable, safe home for their children. Your donations help us provide this level of support.

This year, our partners at Heritage Bank and Loveridge Hunt CPAs have made generous donations so that your end-of-year donation will be matched.

Please consider making a meaningful donation to help our residents thrive.

Thank you for supporting Second Step Housing – we could not do it without you. 

Today more than 60% of American families are living paycheck to paycheck, with little or no financial reserves.  Most of these families are living with very low incomes and often without any sort of lifeline should they run into trouble.  An unexpected medical bill, disruption to employment, or flat tire can cause people to miss a rent payment leading to housing instability or homelessness.

These are the people Second Step Housing is here to serve.  We provide deeply affordable housing for people and families living with low incomes and those who are without housing. 

Once a family moves into one of our properties, we provide staff members to work with them to ensure they can remain stable in their new home.  We connect our residents with community resources and rental assistance, sometimes we pay for a crib for a new baby, a bus pass to help someone get to work, or a replacement social security card a person needs to complete a job application.  This is our commitment to our residents – we will do as much as we can to help them move their lives forward. 

Your donation is essential in providing this vital support to our residents.

______________________________________________________________________

This month we are participating in the Give More 24 annual day of giving. 

Now is a great time to make a donation to Second Step Housing – because of generous matching gifts provided by our partners, your donation will be matched 100%.

You can follow this link to make your donation now:

https://www.givemore24.org/organizations/second-step-housing

Thank you for your help – we could not do this important work without you!

My office is in one of our larger properties, and the windows look out onto an elementary school playground. Several years ago we installed a gate in the fence so that the children who live in this property could walk straight to school and play in the school yard whenever they want. This week the joyful sounds of kids playing at recess returned to my office.  Back to school.

Study after study has shown that growing up in a safe and stable home has positive long-term impacts on a child’s social, emotional, educational, and health outcomes. Kids that grow up in stable homes have fewer lifelong struggles than those growing up amidst housing instability and homelessness.

We believe that one of the greatest impacts we can have on our community is to provide safe and stable homes for children. Our residents deserve to live in stable homes and raise their kids in a safe and consistent environment.  

The last several properties Second Step has built or acquired have all included units specifically designated for homeless families with children.  Today, more than half of our residents are kids.

This work is vital to the health of children, families, and the future of our community.

Thank you for supporting Second Step Housing – we could not do it without you. 

Each night we provide housing for around 270 people. 

Our properties are separated into two basic categories: Transitional Housing (21 units) and Permanent Housing (96 units).

94% of our units are reserved for people earning less than 50% of the area median income, which for a family of four is $53,250.  Most of our households earn far less than this.  

70% of our units are reserved for homeless households.  The vast majority of these units are permanent, meaning the household can stay with us as long as they like.

Our goal is to help homeless and low-income families maintain a safe, permanent home.  Our key metric is housing stability, which we measure by the number of households that move out of our units each year.  This year our stability rate was 95% for all units (85% for our transitional units, and 98% for our permanent units).

We are meeting our mission to a very high degree.

• For people who have been homeless this means not having to constantly worry about their safety or the safety of their children.
• For working parents this means having a reliable home in which they can prepare for the workday and come home to in the evening.  It means a good night’s sleep and a place to prepare healthy meals, pack lunches, and help their kids with homework.
• For kids this means being able to stay in the same schools, with the same teachers and friends.
• For people living with disabilities this means having a safe place to set up exactly how they need it.  It means being able to access the same doctors and caregivers and build relationships that can help them thrive.

The other day I was driving to one of our properties to drop off some mail that had been sent to the wrong address.  It was about three o’clock and as I pulled into the driveway, I saw a long-time resident waiting in front of the building for her daughter to come home from school.  Now, this mother has walked her daughter to the bus stop every morning and waited for her to return from school every afternoon as long as I’ve worked at Second Step.  Like most of our residents, I don’t know this family very well – we say hello and chat from time to time, but the details of their lives are completely unknown to me; I only know that they are living with a low income like all of our residents, and were most likely homeless when they moved in.

The daughter is now a teenager and, by all appearances, seems to be doing well in school.  She’s at the age when a lot of kids start to feel a little embarrassed by their parents.  As she walked home from the bus stop and saw her mother waiting for her, the girl’s face expressed a mix of happiness with a tinge of embarrassment, a smile with a teeny bit of good-natured chagrin.  She was happy to see her mom, even if she didn’t want the other kids to see.  Mom, of course was beaming and waving, as usual, eager to hug her blushing daughter, walk inside, and talk about her day at school.  I smiled to myself and drove past just as they embraced.

This moment, to me, captures the power of a stable home. 

What will this child become?  Time will tell.  But we know that she, and over 100 kids just like her, will not have to endure the trauma and danger of homelessness while they live in our properties.  They get to experience the safety and peace that a stable home provides.  Their odds of living a long, healthy life and making meaningful contributions to our community increased dramatically on the day they moved in.  The impact of a stable home is hard to measure, it takes time, but we see it every day.

Thank you for caring for your neighbors.

Thank you for spreading goodwill.

And thank you for supporting Second Step Housing.

Happy Holidays to you and yours.