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IHN News & Events
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SWEET 16
IHN Dinner & Silent Auction
Saturday April 17, 2010 - 7:00pm
Christ United Methodist Church
Celebration of our 16th Year!
= Advertisers Wanted for the Dinner Program =
Send an email
or phone our Washington Family Center
for more details about advertising 724-229-1129
April 2nd deadline for Ads
Advertising Form
Dinner Letter
IHN
Tri-Fold |
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INDEX
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2002
Census results... US poverty rate rises again
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U.S.
household incomes declined for the third year in a row
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The
poverty rate rose from 11.7% to 12.1%
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34.6
million Americans lived in poverty, with 12.1 million of those being
children (16.7% of all kids)
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Panel
won't OK plan for center for families in distress
October 5, 2006
By Mary Niederberger, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Bonnie Veraldi makes
no apologies for her outspoken opposition to a proposed day-center for
homeless people in her Pleasant Hills neighborhood.
"I don't want it in my
neighborhood. I know that's an old saying, but I don't care. There are
plenty of empty storefronts on Route 51. Put it there," Mrs. Veraldi
said.
"It's not that I am
opposed to what they are doing. We just don't want it here in our
neighborhood."
Her sentiments were
shared by a number of others who attended the Pleasant Hills planning
commission meeting two weeks ago to protest plans by the Interfaith
Hospitality Network to open a day-center for homeless people in a house
owned by the Pleasant Hills Community Presbyterian Church on Audrey
Drive. It was the second meeting at which people showed up to protest
the center.
The commission decided
to recommend against a rezoning from residential to public use, which
the church needed in order for the house to be used as a center for the
homeless. The final decision will be made by Pleasant Hills council at
its Oct. 16 meeting.
The Rev. Paul Thwaite,
associate pastor of Pleasant Hills Community Presbyterian Church, said
the church was unlikely to make a plea to the municipal council for
reconsideration of the rezoning. "We are not interested in having a
knockdown, drag-out church-community battle," he said.
He said the church
would continue discussions with the Interfaith Hospitality Network about
how the church can help with its mission, perhaps on the main church
property, which already is zoned public.
"Part of the reason we
are here is to help persons in need," Mr. Thwaite said.
"We are interested in
what is best for the community, both Pleasant Hills and the wider
community of the South Hills."
The Interfaith
Hospitality Network, which operates in Washington, Pa., uses various
churches throughout the area to provide overnight lodging, along with
breakfast and dinner, to homeless families. In Washington, it has a day
center in a house next to the campus of Washington and Jefferson
College.
The Interfaith
Hospitality Network, which is a national organization with 130 networks,
is unusual in that it provides housing for whole families. Most other
homeless shelters take either women and children only or men only.
Susan Donnan,
executive director of the Washington IHN, said the network had hoped to
expand its services to southern Allegheny County, where it has seen a
need. The network has enough area churches to provide the overnight
lodging, but it has to find a place for a day center where homeless
families can spend their days, searching for jobs and housing and
connecting with social services.
The day center also
would provide a mailing address and telephone number for the homeless
families to use while they work to return to self-sufficiency. In
addition, the day center would provide lunch, a place for the families
to shower and a play area for preschool children.
IHN limits the number
of people it helps in one network to 14, or about four families.
The Washington network
serves 25 to 30 people a year.
Planning commission
Chairman Paul Kueser said the commission listened to comments from
people who were worried the proposed center would lower their property
values and bring crime to the neighborhood, and to school officials who
feared they would be unable to get the academic and health records of
homeless children who would be placed in the schools.
But in the end, Mr.
Kueser said, the commission's decision not to recommend the rezoning was
based solely on the township ordinance that requires a parcel that is
zoned public be at least an acre. The parcel in question is about
one-third of an acre.
Church officials had
tried to argue that the one-third-acre parcel holding the house is
attached to the rest of the church's property, which is several acres.
But the planning commission didn't accept that argument.
Mrs. Donnan said
officials of the national IHN had told her that the Pleasant Hills
situation is the first time public opposition has stopped the creation
of a day center.
"People often have
questions, but once they find out what we are about, they usually drop
their opposition," Mrs. Donnan said.
"Pleasant Hills will
have the distinction of being the first community to stop a center."
Mrs, Veraldi said it
was unfair of Mrs. Donnan to try to make opponents from the neighborhood
feel guilty.
She said Mrs. Donnan
did not make available to the community specific information about crime
in the area around the Washington day center, nor was she specific about
whether the health and discipline records of homeless children would be
made readily available to school officials.
"They are trying to
make it out that we are not good Christians, but it is not that," Mrs.
Veraldi said.
"We just don't want
them to move to a neighborhood where people are raising their children
and older people are retiring," she said.
[back
to index] |
Sunday, September 17, 2006
By Mary Niederberger, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
For 12
years, the Interfaith Hospitality Network has been serving homeless
families in Washington County by providing temporary shelter in churches
and connecting them with social services that help them get back to
independent living.
IHN has
long recognized a need for its services in southern Allegheny County and
wants to start a network in the area, Executive Director Susan Donnan
said.
But a
zoning conflict and opposition from people in Pleasant Hills could put a
hold on a proposal by the network to open a family day center in a house
owned by the Pleasant Hills Community Presbyterian Church at 36 Audrey
Drive.
The day
center would not provide housing, but would be a place for families to
spend their days as they search for jobs and housing, and where they can
obtain transportation to jobs or schools, Mrs. Donnan said.
There
would be a full-time social worker at the center who would help the
families find permanent housing. The families would be able to use the
shower facilities at the home.
The
property would have to be rezoned from residential to public use, which
recognizes such facilities as churches, schools, libraries and
government buildings. The rest of the Pleasant Hills Community
Presbyterian Church property is zoned public.
In
order to get the zoning change, however, the church needs an exemption
from the municipal requirement that parcels be no smaller than 1 acre,
said Paul Kueser, chairman of the Pleasant Hills planning commission.
"The
neighbors are very concerned because they feel it will lower their
property values because there are homeless people that would be brought
to our borough," Mr. Kueser said.
The
planning commission is expected to make its recommendation after a
hearing at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday. The hearing is a continuation of one that
started Aug. 22, when neighbors complained about the possible
devaluation of their homes.
Also at
the Aug. 22 meeting, a school principal questioned whether the district
would be able to check the disciplinary backgrounds of the children, as
they are homeless.
In an
interview last week, Terry Kinavey, assistant to the superintendent of
the West Jefferson Hills School District, said the district recognized
its res-ponsibility to accept homeless pupils, but that it hoped it
could work with the network to get advance notice of how many pupils and
when they would arrive in the district.
That
will allow district officials to plan for them and to apply for federal
funds, Mrs. Kinavey said.
The
planning commission recommendation will go to the borough council, which
will decide on the exemption needed for the zoning change.
"Our
desire and interest is to do things that will be enhancing. We are not
trying to slip something through in the community that will be risky or
an unsafe kind of thing," said the Rev. Paul Thwaite, associate pastor
of Pleasant Hills Community Presbyterian Church.
Mr.
Thwaite and Mrs. Donnan will use the Tuesday meeting to try to convince
neighbors and school officials that the day center won't create problems
for the community.
Mr.
Thwaite said he believed the church should receive the exemption since
the house's one-third acre parcel is connected to the rest of the
church's property, which is several acres.
Mr.
Thwaite and Mrs. Donnan pointed out that IHN is set apart from other
agencies that help the homeless because it keeps entire families
together. Most shelters operate for men only or for women and children
only.
"IHN
gives families the opportunity to go through homelessness without being
split up," Mr. Thwaite said.
The
Interfaith Hospitality Network is a national organization with 130
individual networks across the country, Mrs. Donnan said. The one
operating in Washington County was the 14th to organize nationally.
In
Washington County, the family day center operates out of a home next to
the campus of Washington and Jefferson College.
Without
a similar day center, there can be no program in southern Allegheny
County, Mrs. Donnan said.
"We
have been trying to find a family center for a couple of years. We have
received grant money and we are ready to go."
Mrs.
Donnan said the network had considered a building owned by a Baptist
church in Crafton, but that it was too far from the churches that are
willing to shelter the families. The churches provide supper, night
lodging and breakfast each day, along with transportation back to the
day center.
Mrs.
Donnan said the network already has churches in southern Allegheny
County that house homeless families, including Southminster Presbyterian
Church in Mt. Lebanon and John McMillan Presbyterian and Hamilton
Presbyterian churches in Bethel Park. Churches in Peters help with the
effort as well, she said.
"One of
the reasons we want a program in the South Hills is so churches don't
have to travel too far," she said.
Mrs.
Donnan said most of the children in the program have been under age 5,
so the number of children placed in the West Jefferson Hills schools is
expected to be small. She said the network checks the backgrounds of
families.
"We do
police checks and we can do drug and alcohol checks. We would find out
about criminal problems and we would not let them into the program," she
said.
IHN
limits the number of people it will help in a network to 14, or about
four families, Mrs. Donnan said. Families stay with the network for
periods ranging from one week to several months. Annually, the network
in Washington County serves 25 to 30 families. Their cases are reviewed
every 30 days, and the families have to work toward getting their own
residence, Mrs. Donnan said.
"Most
of them want to stay as short a time as possible," she said.
[back
to index] |
ALMANAC article
September 23, 2005
Struggling Families Find Support When Needed Most
by Lorraine Gregus, Columnist
September 23, 2005
As major
disasters occur such as floods and tornadoes, causing countless folks to
relocate or rebuild their lives, we recognize the need and are quick to
help.
But when our lifestyles are running smoothly, we tend to forget that in
communities everywhere there are folks who have fallen on hard times.
The Interfaith Hospitality Network (IHN), with its family center in
Washington, Pa., is a network of churches working together to provide
shelter and hospitality to homeless families. IHN also helps to secure
job training and employment and meet most health needs.
Owned and maintained by the Church of the Covenant, for 12 years the
house adjacent to the church has provided IHN with a homelike setting
for families who have come upon difficult times.
The crisis of homelessness is worldwide. It can occur through job loss,
illness, loss of property through fire or floods or other extreme
hardships. And most importantly, it can happen to any one of us.
The IHN program helps resolve issues that contributed to each family’s
homelessness.
Its primary goal is to ensure that families move into adequate housing
and are able to sustain their independence.
The St. Vincent de Paul Society, through its association with St. Thomas
More Church in Bethel Park, is quick to round up furniture and household
necessities to help rebuild the lives of those cared for at the family
center.
By networking throughout the South Hills, care and assistance helps to
get those in need back on their feet. By reaching into community
resources, overnight lodging and meals are made available through
churches and volunteers.
Agencies offer referrals and counseling on nutrition, parenting and
budget management. And caring individuals often donate cars for those
needing transportation.
By coordinating with the IHN staff, church groups provide sleeping
accommodations and meals for families, even infants. At 5 p.m. each day
the center’s van takes IHN guests to their host churches. Congregations
take turns caring for the impoverished for one week. Individual families
then move to another church.
Families find refuge at the center from a couple weeks to a couple
months. An average stay is 45 days.
Action is taken to secure incomes, find homes and to resolve problems
through human service agencies.
“We receive five or six calls a day from families in crisis, mostly from
Allegheny County” said Susan Donnan, executive director. “We only have
room for 14 individuals at a time. If the center is full, we offer
information on other shelters and agencies.
“If another house or building could be found in the Dormont-Mt.
Lebanon-Baldwin area, we could start another day center. The Second
Circle shelter would operate closer to the churches who are already
sponsors.
“I knew I needed help caring for my my wife and young daughter so I
called Catholic Charities,” said Tom. “They put me in contact with IHS.
The folks here at the family center took us in, provided a place to
spend our days, to shower and do our laundry. We have dinner and sleep
at one of the host churches. In a little over two weeks IHN found me a
van to replace
my car which was falling apart. They also paid the security deposit on
an apartment my family will be moving into soon.”
Fashion Show fundraiser
• Fashion shows to support the family shelter will be held at 11:30 a.m.
Oct. 1 at Christ U.M. Church, Bethel Park and at 7 p.m. Oct. 6 at
Julian’s, Washington. “Weekenders” coordinates will be featured. Tickets
are $10. Call 724-229-1129
Host churches
By linking with Interfaith Hospitality Network, the following churches
provide help for the homeless.
They include Bethel Presbyterian, Canonsburg U.P., Christ U.M., Church
of the Covenant, Emmanuel U.P., First U.M., Hamilton Presbyterian,
Monongahela First Presbyterian, Peters Creek Presbyterian, St. Benedict
the Abbot, Southminster Presbyterian, John McMillan Presbyterian and
Thomas Presbyterian.
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Charity
'prayerfully optimistic' that donations will rise
BY CHRISTIE
CAMPBELL
THE OBSERVER-REPORTER
December 19, 2002
(WEBMASTER'S
NOTE: This
will mean a decrease of $16,000 to $20,000 in funding for IHN in Washington,
Pennsylvania
during 2003)
Local charities are
expecting to receive fewer gifts this Christmas.
Charities in
Washington County are reporting that donations are down, forcing many to
re-evaluate their 2003 programming.
In addition, six
agencies that receive emergency federal funding learned Wednesday that
that money will not be forthcoming next year. The Federal Emergency
Management Agency last year gave the county $117,000 to provide emergency
food and shelter.
The decrease in
local giving reflects a national trend attributable to a soft economy that
has left many people with less discretionary income and stocks that have
depreciated.
The most visible
holiday fund-raiser, the Salvation Army's red kettle campaign, is short
$10,000.
With six fewer
shopping days this holiday season, Salvation Army Maj. Chuck Thomas said
the agency is not expected to meet its goal of $40,000.
"The kettle
campaign is such a large amount of our giving," he said, noting that
most of the money raised stays in the local area.
Giving to the
United Way of Washington County also has decreased.
"I don't have
an optimistic outlook on our campaign," said William McCready,
president of the United Way of Washington County.
The United Way
funds 33 human service agencies and 56 programs in the county. Its
campaign ends in February.
Giving to the
Washington City Mission was "soft" during October and November
said Rick Futrell, the mission's executive director.
"We are about
30 percent below our budget," he said. "We're prayerfully
optimistic that December will be a strong month for us."
As giving goes
down, need rises. At the City Mission, an average of 13 or 14 men has been
sleeping on the floor of the chapel every night since September. There has
also been an increase in the shelter's guest feeding program.
Last year's FEMA
allocation provided money to Washington County Food Bank, Community Action
Southwest, Washington Christian Outreach, Salvation Army, Interfaith
Hospitality Network and CONNECT Inc. Catholic Charities administers
the program.
The money allows
the agencies to provide emergency money for people who are on the verge of
losing their home because they need help with rent or utility payments or
who need food or emergency shelter.
In spite of the
outlook, those involved with human services said they have faced similar
challenges in the past and their work will go on.
"I think
historically when times get tough there is a short lull when giving
doesn't quite catch up. But eventually people see the pain and they meet
that pain," said Futrell. "We still live in a generous community
with generous people who care about their neighbors."
"It would be
nice if there was more money," said McCready. "But I tell
people, even when we don't make goals we still fund a lot of programs and
still help a lot of people."
[back
to index]
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Post-Gazette article
March 4, 2002
Interfaith
networks give homeless families shelter, food and hope on rotating basis
By Mackenzie
Carpenter
Post-Gazette Staff Writer
Amy Johnson watches her
2-year-old, Braden, as he cheerfully pushes a yellow truck across the
carpet in the cozy sitting room, and then her eyes brim with tears.
"I've made some bad
choices, some bad mistakes," she declares. "And I'm not going to
make them again. This is enough for me and my kids to go through."
"This" is
homelessness.
Johnson, who is 25 but looks
like a frail, pale 15-year-old, has no money and no place to live. She is
a single mother to three children, ages 4, 3 and 2. Their father is living
in another county, trying, in Johnson's words, "to get his stuff
together."
But for now, her children are
well-fed and clothed, with comfortable beds to sleep on and plenty of
grown-ups around to spoil them.
For the past two months, Johnson
and her children have been "guests" of the Interfaith
Hospitality Network, a national, nonprofit consortium of churches with a
local branch headquartered in Washington County. A second network is
operated by the Allegheny Valley Association of Churches in Natrona
Heights.
Begun in 1986, the national
program comprises more than 2,000 congregations and 70,000 volunteers, who
help participating churches in each network host homeless families for a
week at a time, on a rotating basis.
That means every seven days,
beds and other furniture are packed into a trailer and moved from church
to church, where new, private temporary bedrooms and living quarters are
set up for the homeless guests, most of whom are single mothers and their
children. To keep numbers manageable, most programs host no more than four
families or 14 people at a time.
Almost everything is donated,
from the suppers that are cooked by volunteers each night to the cars and
vans that are used to ferry people about and, in some cases, lent to those
searching for jobs.
In the Washington network, eight
churches from Allegheny and Washington counties participate. Most are
Presbyterian, but two are Methodist, one is Catholic and several members
of the Temple Emanuel Synagogue also are involved.
"It's designed to increase
the community's understanding of the problems of the homeless by having
volunteers in churches work directly with them, instead of just writing a
check to have someone else do it," said Susan Donnan, the program's
director.
From Sunday to Sunday, a host
church provides supper, lodging at night and breakfast the next day. Each
morning at 7 a.m. church volunteers drive the families to the network's
headquarters and family center, a renovated former private home next door
to Washington and Jefferson College on one of the main roads into downtown
Washington, Pa.
From there, children go to
school or child care, and parents may go to jobs, job training programs or
parenting classes, or use the center to do laundry and conduct searches
for jobs or housing by phone. At 5 p.m., they are transported back to the
host church for supper, family time and sleep.
By using existing facilities --
church basements or Sunday School classrooms that are already heated and
lit -- the cost of running the program is minimal. The national
organization estimates that the average cost of operation is about $13.50
a day per person. The Washington branch doesn't break down the numbers
that way, but says its annual costs come to about $100,000, not counting
another $200,000 in in-kind or volunteer services.
The program can't meet all the
needs that are out there, however. The 14-person limit in the network is
just a drop in the bucket, given that a head count a year ago in
Washington County found that 240 people were in shelters, a figure that
officials say is an underestimate.
About 60 percent of the homeless
population -- those with drug and alcohol problems or severe mental
illness or a criminal record -- aren't covered by the interfaith network
of shelters, whose volunteers lack the expertise to handle such
complicated cases. Instead, they take people who may have had such
problems in the past but who are in recovery.
They are people who, through a
combination of circumstances, find themselves in a difficult place, Donnan
said.
"Homelessness is a
situation, not a trait of the person. But so many people are so wary of
that word 'homeless.' That adjective really gets in the way. Our
volunteers learn, though, that these are people just like them, like an
older couple, both working full time at a fast-food restaurant, who
couldn't afford to pay a deposit and utilities for an apartment, so they
came to stay with us until they found a more affordable place."
The network's emphasis on
homeless families separates it from many traditional shelters, which tend
to segregate their larger and harder-core population by sex in
dormitory-style living and limit children under a certain age. Many
shelters also limit stays to 30 days, while the network allows stays of up
to three months.
Rotating each week from church
to church allows the hosts "to offer more than just shelter,"
Donnan said. "By definition, hospitality is the offering of a
pleasant and sustaining environment, and our volunteers work hard to
provide that."
"The relationship is
different," said Dottie Rieber, coordinator of the program for Christ
United Methodist Church in Bethel Park. "We tell our volunteers to
treat people as you would a guest. We aren't baby sitters, but we also
don't tell them what to do. We ask permission before walking into their
rooms, things like that."
Sometimes, though, volunteers
are shocked to discover that their "guests" don't really want to
be there.
"Some people have trouble
accepting help. We have a lot of success stories, but there are some
people who walk away, leaving us frustrated," Rieber said, recalling
a single father with two small children who had lost his job and had come
to the network for help. "He seemed so wonderful, and his kids were
so darling, but one day, he just disappeared. It was really
disappointing."
Such a "mobile"
homeless program requires at least 56 volunteers per church, at least
eight people for each day of the week, including two who stay overnight.
That kind of commitment can be difficult to sustain, said Karen Snair, who
runs the Natrona Heights program for the Allegheny Valley Association of
Churches.
One church recently dropped out,
"because a lot of their parishioners had gotten older and the
volunteer base was dwindling. A lot of people were spending their winters
in Florida. They just couldn't get the numbers of people they needed to
help."
The network is always trying to
attract more churches, especially in the Pittsburgh area, but it has found
it difficult to expand its reach beyond mainline Protestant churches,
Snair said.
"Usually, the independent
churches do their own programs and prefer not to be involved with
ours," said Snair, who noted that the network accepted people
"regardless of their religion -- or even if they have no
religion."
George Lang, administrator and
assistant pastor at Grace Church of the South Hills, an independent
denomination, said his church was no longer involved with the program.
"Our members are very anxious to share their faith, very eager to
talk about Jesus," and the network's prohibition against evangelizing
caused some problems, he said.
The church also was
uncomfortable with the network's policy of permitting common law husbands
and wives to share quarters together.
"We did object to
that," Lang said. "That's just not our policy."
Jerry Sherman, coordinator of
the interfaith hospitality program at Southminster Presbyterian Church in
Mt. Lebanon, said the network discouraged evangelizing "because these
people are coming in at a very vulnerable time for them, and we don't want
to pressure them to make any decisions. If some church events or services
are going on, we certainly welcome them if they want to attend. But even
if they're atheists, they're still welcome. We just want to help them get
on their feet again."
Johnson is trying to do that,
but it's not easy.
She is in ill health and said
she is unable to work. While she receives $200 twice a month in public
assistance, it isn't enough to live on; most rents start at $400 a month
in Washington, not including utilities. She has been placed, with help
from the network, on a waiting list for subsidized housing.
Seated on a couch in the family
center's upstairs playroom, Johnson said she was grateful for the help
provided by the network, but found the constant moving about to be
exhausting. She leaves the host church at 7 each morning, returns at 5
each evening, and moves to a new church each week.
"You never get used to
it," she said. "I can never relax. I'm always getting the kids
somewhere, on a bus, on a van, off a van. And it's hard to be up for
people. You might not be up for talking, but you have to."
What does she hope to be doing
in five years?
She pauses for a minute, as
though the question had never occurred to her. In her day-to-day
existence, five years is a long time. "I'd like to be working as a
clerk at a store or as a waitress, I guess. I know the pay isn't good, but
waitresses get tips.
"But
mainly I just want to be living with my kids in a place of my own."
[back
to index]
|
Network of churches puts
out welcome mat for people needing shelter
BY CHRISTIE
CAMPBELL
THE OBSERVER-REPORTER
The look of determination on the face of Cathy Daniels says it all.
"This is my
first time being homeless, and it's going to be my last," she said.
The Pittsburgh
woman and her two children have spent the last several months sleeping in
the basements or Sunday school rooms of area churches. Under the umbrella
of the Interfaith Hospitality Network of the South Hills, Daniels' family
has been sheltered and fed after she abruptly left an unsafe domestic
situation with little more than the clothes on her back.
By day, Daniels'
children attend school. At night, they are taken from IHN's day center to
one of nine host churches, where they will have dinner and spend the
night.
Although Daniels
never will feel that the churches she and her two children have slept in
are home, she is grateful they have opened their doors to her.
"When it's
time for me to go home, I'll take every church with me," she said.
In its seventh year
of operation, the hospitality network allows congregations to put their
faith into action. The one-on-one interaction helps give the homeless a
face.
"There are a
lot of assumptions and generalities made about homeless people," said
Susan Donnan, IHN's executive director.
A lack of
affordable housing is the main reason families are homeless. IHN has
sheltered people who are working but whose paychecks do not cover the cost
of monthly rent, especially when a health problem occurs or a car is in
need of repair.
IHN can take up to
four families or 14 people at a time. Clients of the program are screened
for criminal backgrounds, drug or alcohol problems and unstable mental
health conditions.
"When we first
started out, churches were very apprehensive," Donnan said.
"Now, we're at an advantage because we've been here seven years and
haven't had the problems people were fearful of."
In addition to
shelter, IHN provides other services, such as helping clients find sources
of income and deal with health issues, as well as follow-up care after
they leave the program. The local program has helped an estimated 500
people since its inception.
"It's very
important to us that they remain self-reliant," Donnan said.
Donnan hopes to
encourage other Washington County churches to become involved in the
network. The program could use church involvement in Greene County, too.
Any number of volunteers can be used. One church in the network has a
membership of 3,500, while another one has about 100 members.
Nationally, IHN
began nearly 20 years ago when a New Jersey woman wanted to do something
to help the homeless and sought help from her congregation. Today, there
are more than 80,000 volunteers in 80 hospitality networks across the
United States.
IHN moved into its
new family center at 297 E. Beau St. in Washington in January. A group of
volunteers renovated the turn-of-the-century building owned by the Church
of the Covenant (Presbyterian USA) for office and living space while
retaining amenities such as stained glass windows and wooden ceiling
beams.
A $10,000 grant
from Washington Federal Savings Bank helped make the renovations possible.
SUSAN DONNAN is
available to speak to groups about IHN. She can be reached at 724
229-1129. The program's Web site is www.homelessfamilies.org
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