Flagler introduces rapid re-housing to local delegates
Virginia Delegates Rosalyn Dance (D-Petersburg) and Riley Ingram (R-Hopewell) visited the Housing Resource Center in Petersburg to learn from our Flagler staff and the Virginia Coalition to End Homelessness (VCEH) how rapid re-housing has proven to be an effective model in reducing homelessness.
Dance and Ingram then visited the home of Samantha Hinton, a single-mother of four who was rapidly re-housed by Flagler two years ago to hear her story. She has remained in her home for those two years, and is now looking to go back to school to become a medical assistant.
“When I left the [Flagler] office, my needs were met,” said Hinton. “They were always polite. I felt like they cared about me.”
Rapid re-housing sees high success rates because it first solves a homeless family’s most urgent and basic need of housing stability. Families receive small amounts of financial aid for needs such as security deposits, as well as support services sufficient to help them maintain housing. After housing is obtained, case workers can more easily address the factors that led to the family’s homelessness.
Click here to read the full story in an article published by the Petersburg Progress-Index.
Flagler and VCEH staff with Virginia Delegates Riley Ingram and Rosalyn Dance