Thanks to so many of you for helping last month at IHN. I thought it went very smoothly! A particular thanks and welcome to Suzanne Doiron-Schivaone and to Jennifer Daly, who came for the first time as dinner hosts. Pat Curtis gets kudos for coming at 5 and staying over two nights! Jean McInerney did a longer dinner shift to accommodate Kris Johnson's schedule for the overnight; thank you! Walter Cunningham, Elizabeth Mullaney and Kris rounded out our overnights.
There were a number of generous donations from the congregation which allowed us to give sufficient money for food and supplies. Pat Arbuckle and Madeline Silva kindly bought diapers for the many bottoms at the program that needed them.
We are scheduled for another week coming in February: 2/16-2/23/14, which is the school vacation week. Please consider helping by volunteering or by donating. There are 8 adults and 10 children in the program; the director figures it takes about $250 a week to provide food and supplies for the families. I know I just tapped many of you for donations...thank you for your kindness. I hope, if you are able to, that you will consider helping out again.
Liz Gustavson
gustavsonliz@hotmail.com
from the home front
February 3, 2014
Working hard for your money…
IHN is sheltering 6 families, 8 adults
and 10 children. Of the 6 families, 4 are steadily employed. One adult is
studying for their GED. Most of the children spend the day in school or daycare.
And in the evenings time is spent looking for housing. The challenge is there
remains a lack of affordable housing. With an on average 2-bedroom rental in Worcester
County being $966/month, even with added assistance such as food stamps, it is
extremely difficult, even for employed families, to find adequate housing.
·
As of January 9, 2014,
there were approximately 4,200 families with children and pregnant women in
Massachusetts’ Emergency Assistance (EA) shelter programs. 2,096 of these
families with children are being sheltered in motels. This number does not
count those families who are doubled up, living in unsafe conditions, or
sleeping in their cars-- or many of the 5,400 families who will time out of
the state's HomeBASE rental assistance program during fiscal year 2014.*
·
The poverty threshold in Massachusetts is $23,021
for a family of four.*
·
There are an estimated 738,514 people in Massachusetts
living in households that fall below the poverty threshold**.
·
The federal initiative to increase the minimum wage
from $8/hour to $10.10/hour would yield $21,008 gross annual income for a 40
hour/week employee.
* Massachusetts Department of Housing and
Community Development
Area
students lend a helping hand
This semester, students from 3 area
colleges/universities will be assisting IHN. A community leadership class from Worcester
State University will provide hosting support two days a week. Assumption
College will be assisting IHN with network communication support. And WPI
students will be doing special projects… painting, minor repairs, spring
cleaning, etc. Thanks for the support!
A
fiscally responsible network
Q2 of the IHN fiscal year ended in the
black by $2,800. Please keep up your donations and congregation’s pledge
support. IHN’s Fall Thanksgiving Appeal netted over $7,500 in donations. Thank
you!
ihnworcester@verizon.net
I www.ihnworcester.org
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