WEST BALTIMORE, Md. — Families transitioning from homelessness to permanent housing in Baltimore are getting help with essential household items through St. Vincent de Paul's "New Year, New Home" campaign.
WATCH: Nonprofit seeks help with items for families transitioning from shelters
The initiative provides everything from cleaning supplies to cookware and bedding to clients as they move into their new homes after months of rebuilding their lives in shelter programs.
Towels, detergent, bathroom tissue. Everything that your family needs is the same thing that families staying in shelter programs and moving to permanent housing need.
Roslyn Swan, a mother of four who left a bad relationship last year, exemplifies the program's success. After nearly a year of case management and counseling at Sarah's
Hope Family Shelter, she will move into her own apartment on February 1st.
"I'm halfway past my journey, and I will be there very soon. It's a very positive outlook," Swan said.
Swan gazes out the windows at Sarah's Hope Family Shelter, looking at the homes across the street and dreaming of a three-bedroom townhouse.
"As a mom, I felt as though they were in my care and I had to do what I had to do," Swan said.
Swan's success story is one of dozens this year in St. Vincent de Paul's shelters, housing programs, and supportive services.
"My children always tell me how proud they are of me and how I've just gone through this process with so much grace and strength, so I'm really proud as a mom of what I'm doing," Swan said.
After months of rebuilding their lives, clients like Swan are finally ready to move into permanent housing. But after paying security deposits and utility bills, there's little left for household essentials.
"Not only transition them into the next phase of their housing process but making sure that that housing process is a more stable one, so not pushing someone out into a situation where they can't maintain that housing for themselves," said Nia Garrett, assistant director at Sarah's Hope.
The "New Year, New Home" initiative addresses this gap by providing everything from cleaning supplies to cookware and bedding to clients as they move into their new homes.
"You wanna make sure that that home is clean. You wanna make sure that they're able to prepare meals for their children, nutritious meals for their children, have somewhere for their children to sleep with the proper bedding, and to be able to wash those linen, right?" Garrett said.
Donations have declined in recent years while client numbers have surged. Sarah's Hope serves as the collections hub for three shelters and multiple housing programs.
The organization is accepting donations of new items weekdays from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. at Sarah's Hope, 1114 N. Mount St., Baltimore; and the Eastside Shelter, 9150 Franklin Square Dr., Rosedale.
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