Hi, we are the Harrison family and this is our hope story…

Our family was recently homeless and living out of a hotel with our young child. We were paying for the hotel – some on our own, but we were unable to pay all our expenses without community assistance. The school district had paid some of our hotel stay, as had a local church.

After Catholic Charities of Northeast Kansas met with us, we discovered that we actually had enough income to maintain rent in a fair market rent housing situation, but definitely not in a high cost hotel situation. We had too many housing barriers to be accepted into an apartment because of our past eviction with rental payments still due as well as high utilities that we hadn’t been able to pay. Catholic Charities of Northeast Kansas partnered with another community service provider to assist our family in stabilizing our living arrangements. A Catholic Charities of Northeast Kansas community partner paid our past utility bills and Catholic Charities helped us find and secure housing as well as paid the deposit and first months rent.

This help freed up money for us to pay off our past eviction debt. All of this happened right when we regained custody of our second child. Now both our girls will be living in a stable living situation in an apartment rather than a hotel. We don’t have to go on not knowing how our rent will be paid week to week!