Homelessness makes you sick.
Being very sick can make you homeless.
If you're sick, homelessness makes you sicker.
Do you remember the last time you moved? The excitement, the stress? Buying new supplies and home goods, getting water and electricity turned on and leaving a familiar community is hard for all of us—even in the best of times.
Imagine navigating this transition with little money for necessities and no family or friends to help. That’s what Ben and Mary are doing.
Last winter, Ray Fitzberger got frostbite on his legs and feet. Doctors had to remove three toes on his left foot. Not long after the surgery, Ray was released from the hospital.
Every day, people we know and love undergo surgery to address life-threatening conditions. If they have no place to go, they get discharged back to the streets.
Each day, Carlton trekked downtown for heroin. Drugs had landed him 33 years in prison, cost him the support of his family and prevented him from keeping a job.
Philisha fought for Gabby and Travis every day.
As the 90-day limit at a local shelter wound down, she agonized over keeping her family together and keeping a roof over her children’s heads. The possibility that she couldn’t do both was excruciating.
To afford a two bedroom rental home on a minimum wage job in Maryland, you would have to work 115 hours a week.
We’ve known for years that housing is the solution to homelessness—and that housing is health care. Yet, we’ve witnessed a sweeping disinvestment in affordable housing across the country. This summer our Board of Directors formed a Housing Committee to guide us as we find our place in affordable and supportive housing.
When a few of our staff and board members laced up their boots to head to Denver in the dead of winter last year, housing our city’s most vulnerable individuals was on their minds.
In 2016, thousands of community members raised their voices in support of the Affordable Housing Trust Fund—a bill that would require public investment in affordable housing. With 180,000 Baltimore City residents voting favorably for the fund, it passed without a hitch. But without a sustainable funding stream, the fund itself sat empty for nearly two years.
Join us on November 3 for a morning of loud socks, team spirit and doing good! Together, with walkers, runners, stroller-pushers and furry friends, we’ll take to the Lake Montebello track for our annual Rock Your Socks to Health & Home 5K. The best part? Your steps help children and families experiencing homelessness get care with dignity and pursue the healthy futures they deserve.