Freddie Mac Foundation Family Home Provides Housing and Support Services
Through one of its main areas of focus, Stable Homes/Stable Families, the Freddie Mac Foundation helps families in crisis secure vital services, such as emergency shelter and transitional housing, to meet their immediate needs. By further investing in housing with services, the Foundation helps families become self-sufficient and build a better future.
The Freddie Mac Foundation's $500K grant given in 2007 to Doorways for Women and Families made possible a new shelter and support services for women and families. The Freddie Mac Foundation Family Home in Arlington, VA will provide safe, temporary housing and intensive support services to homeless women and families within Arlington County and the DC region.
Family homelessness continues to be a serious and growing issue throughout the DC region. Nearly half of the area's homeless are families and a quarter of the homeless population are children. Also, a majority of the Washington, DC region's homeless families live in the suburbs. Doorways serves an even greater proportion of children as approximately 52% of their clients are children.
Although many families do not remain homeless for long, the experience can be devastating, increasing the likelihood that families will dissolve. Homeless children are also more likely to be placed in foster care, are less healthy, experience disruptions in schooling, and are more likely to have developmental delays than poor, housed children.
Doorways provides a broad range of services for women and families experiencing homelessness and domestic violence. In addition to the new home, Doorways operates a domestic violence safehouse, a two-year supportive housing program, children's services, financial literacy training, court companionship and advocacy, and community outreach.
The Freddie Mac Foundation Family House opened its doors in December 2007, providing a lifesaving continuum of care, hope and safety for up to 21 individuals or four to seven families at any given time.