Hospitality House Programs
The Hospitality House shelter provides homeless single women in South King County shelter and services to help them achieve greater self-sufficiency and housing stability. Basic needs such as food, clothing and health care are priorities. Case management and individual stability planning are the core of the Hospitality House program. The purpose of case management is both to address immediate emergency needs of the participant either through direct assistance or referrals to outside services, and to address the long term stabilization of the individual. This involves discussing with the participant the reasons that they became homeless and how to overcome those barriers in the future. Programming services at the House (an hour per week at a minimum) keep clients aware of the resources in the community available to them to meet their basic needs to prevent future homelessness once they obtain permanent, stable housing. Each participant follows the Hospitality House stability plan and develops an individualized self-sufficiency plan. These plans address goals for education, employment, financial, legal, mental health, chemical dependency, domestic violence and parenting. Once participants have set their goals case manager’s function as a source of information and encouragement to help each participant reach their goals. Hospitality House serves a diverse population of women, ranging in age from 18 to 80, representing a wide variety of cultures, races, nationalities and backgrounds. All of Hospitality House’s services are free to our residents
Recent Successes and Current Challenges
Shortly after CPS took custody of her children, Yolanda entered our shelter depressed and despairing of ever being able to turn her life around. It was apparent that she needed inpatient treatment for her addictions as her health and emotional state were quickly deteriorating. Given the choice to either exit our program or enter treatment, she chose treatment. From that point forward, Yolanda’s attitude toward her sobriety changed dramatically. She demonstrated a genuine desire to do be reunited with her two sons. Two years later, Yolanda called to tell us how thankful she is every day for the help she received from Hospitality House. Because of our support and encouragement, she has maintained her sobriety and regained full custody of her boys! With heartfelt gratitude and a genuine desire to help others, she states, “If it weren’t for the second chance HH gave to me, I would not be alive today. “ Yolanda has been such an inspiration that she began volunteering for Hospitality House in 2010 and in 2011 was hired as a full time employee. She continues to motivate and inspire all those that she meets.