A Letter From Our Executive Director

You’ve probably heard that there is an affordable housing crisis. Our single mothers are paying $1,500 a month in rent for the same apartment that was $900 a month last year. You’ve also probably heard that homelessness is an increasing problem resulting from the economic challenges our communities are facing. For a single mother to make enough to afford rent, childcare, transportation, and other basic needs for her family, she must make more than $23.00 per hour at minimum and that still means she’s struggling to build a financial safety net for emergencies. This scenario is not sustainable. Will you please take a moment and hear the voice of this single mother who we are currently serving? Listen to what she says:

Latreese told us, “I’m never the person to ask for help. I always made everything happen with just the little bit of money I had and I made sure my children were well taken care of. I was also doing school while I wasn’t working. I was working on my degree so I can move up in the world and show my girls we can do stuff, we just have to try harder. I wanted to do better for me and my children.” And now she needs your help.

On average, 30 to 40 families facing homelessness call and ask us for help each month. When you give to support Bridge of Hope Harrisburg Area, you offer a solution to the problems these families are facing. Bridge of Hope Harrisburg Area helps with rental assistance on a decreasing basis until mom finds stable employment, builds earning power, and has housing she can sustain herself. We assist families in furthering their education when it’s needed, increase financial literacy, and help with emergency expenses if her budget gets tight and she needs someone to turn to.

This year our supporters made it possible for fifteen families to secure sustainable housing! Our work is not done, there are more families to help, so we are asking you to please give hope to fifteen more single mothers and their children in 2023. Ending homelessness for fifteen more families in 2023, that’s the goal we can all share, and with your help I know we can get the job done! Will you join all of us at Bridge of Hope Harrisburg Area in ending homelessness for families today as we love and support single mothers and their children?

Thank you for housing families with us!

Kevin Lutz, Executive Director

Bridge of Hope Harrisburg Area offers a long-term program to single mothers and their children experiencing homelessness in Cumberland, Dauphin and York counties. Through rental assistance on a decreasing basis that leads to safe and sustainable housing, a strengths-based and holistic case management approach focusing on financial literacy, further education, increased earning power with sustainable employment, and building family resilience, the Bridge of Hope Harrisburg Area program offers single mothers a hand-up through resources that keep her family housed while she does the hard work of meeting goals toward ending homelessness permanently and being able to sustain her family on her own.

Families are housed in safe, permanent housing within 60 days from when they join our program. We match each family with six to ten Neighboring Volunteers from local Christian Faith Communities who offer a network of supportive relationships as mom works to reach the goals she creates with our professionally trained Case Manager. This three-way partnership between the family facing homelessness, Neighboring Volunteers and our Case Manager offers the support families need while they work hard to attain three main outcomes at graduation from our program: 

Safe & Sustainable Housing | Strong & Resilient Families | Supportive Relationships

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