Housing Advocates Help Families Stay in their Homes

“Bria didn’t quit. Because of her, we’re still at home.”

The full and staggering effects of the COVID-19 pandemic are just becoming known. Every day, families right here in our community face impossible choices. Should I buy groceries or pay the rent? How can I afford to put gas in my car and get diapers for the baby?

Diana, single mom of four living on the southside of Bethlehem, faces those difficult choices every day. Experiencing extreme health issues preventing her from work, she fell one year behind on her rent during the pandemic. Afraid of losing the place her family called home for over 10 years caused Diana extreme stress and anxiety.

“It’s hard being a single mom in the hospital worrying about what will happen to my kids,” Diana shared.

Housing is reported to be the number one challenge for families in United Way Community Schools, which support students’ basic needs in 31 of the region’s schools. As a volunteer in New Bethany Ministries’ food pantry for 8 years, Diana learned about the extended services available to assist families and reached out for help. “Our kids are more important than our pride,” she said.

Diana connected with Bria Dews, a Housing Advocate through New Bethany’s Housing Navigator program. Thanks to funding from United Way, New Bethany offers a school-based Housing Navigator position to help connect Bethlehem Area School District families in Broughal Middle School as well as Donegan and Fountain Hill Elementary Schools with housing services and benefits that they might be eligible for. The goal is to improve housing security and reduce housing mobility with students and families in United Way Community Schools.

“Affordable housing is a barrier and if families aren’t stable, they have to move. The lack of stability adds stress and affects the academic success of the student,” stated Rosa Carides-Hof, Community School Coordinator at Donegan Elementary, a United Way Community School.

In our Community School network of 19,000 students, the percent of unstable youth has more than doubled from 10% in the 2019-20 academic year to 23% in 2020-21. United Way of the Greater Lehigh Valley (UWGLV) has a solid plan to decrease the rate of student mobility with programs such as the Housing Navigator through New Bethany Ministries.

The school is where families go to ask for help and having the Housing Navigator program in the school makes it even easier for families to get the services they need. In the program’s first year, about 40 families experiencing financial insecurities received housing assistance.

“Without the help and support of New Bethany, Bria and United Way, we struggle to provide these services to the families because the need is so great,” said Rosa.

With Bria’s persistence, Diana received the funding to resolve her rental arrears, and her children are able to stay in their home and their schools undisrupted.

“She doesn’t know the impact she has. I was desperate. I wouldn’t sleep. Bria didn’t quit and because of her, we’re still at home,” shared Diana.

Bethlehem Community School families looking for assistance can stop into New Bethany’s Housing Assistance Office on 313 West 4th Street or speak to someone in their child’s school to be connected to resources.

“My hope is that this role expands throughout the school districts and beyond to meet parents where they are throughout the community. We want families to feel that they are ingrained and a part of the community. We want them to grow roots here,” shared Bria. “It doesn’t matter your socioeconomic background, or where you come from or what you look like—you’re able to maintain and live a safe and healthy life in the community.”

Give to United Way of the Greater Lehigh Valley to help fund programs like Housing Navigator so families like Diana’s can stay in their homes.