CAMDEN – A homeless single mother with three young children who recently sought support from Catholic Charities of South Jersey has found respite.
With the help of Aimee Brown, the agency’s housing stability coordinator, the family was able to determine that they were eligible for the Rapid ReHousing program that Catholic Charities offers. The program also allowed Catholic Charities to provide the woman, who wished to remain anonymous, with a security deposit and first month’s rent for their rental.
In addition, Brown is working with the mother to achieve self-sufficiency through intensive case management. This includes helping her learn how to improve her credit score, understand more about budgeting, secure a better paying job and improve other important life skills.
“Our client is seeing a lot of success by receiving intensive case management needed to become self-sufficient in the near future,” Brown said.
In the United States, the average homeless family consists of a single mother with two or more young children. More than 2.5 million children experience homelessness each year. In 2022 in New Jersey, more than 30% of families with children younger than 5 were living with a single mom experiencing poverty. That translates into almost a third of single mothers in New Jersey living in poverty.
The Rapid Rehousing program works to temporarily mitigate high rental costs for those facing homelessness. It provides a housing subsidy on a month-to-month basis for up to a year. This remains available to families so long as they continue to meet the eligibility requirements for the program – that is, paying 30% of the family’s gross income each month toward the rental property throughout the year.
To learn more about how Catholic Charities serve those in need across South Jersey, regardless of religious, social or economic background, visit catholiccharitiessouthjersey.org.
Katie Hagan is marketing manager for Catholic Charities Diocese of Camden.
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