The Baron and Blue Foundation recently granted $5,000 to Human Rights Initiative towards our Emergency Housing Pilot Program with Reconciliation Outreach of Dallas. HRI provides social services to our clients and one of the most pressing issues is housing.
HRI often struggles to find a reliable, safe resource for clients’ housing. Most shelters offer only temporary solutions for people with no immigration status and who cannot work. Our clients are often not allowed to work while their legal cases are pending, so the shelters offer them no long-term solutions. Thus, most of our clients end up relying on strangers or friends from their home country who agree to take them in for a period of time. However, these solutions are often not long-term or even safe. Lack of housing has been the most heartbreaking, intractable problem for clients who already have faced down a lifetime of challenges.
We have partnered with Reconciliation Outreach of Dallas, a faith-based organization, to place a small number of our clients in apartment units within Reconciliation’s affordable housing program. This will also provide our most struggling clients with access to a community of resources and support. We are excited about our new pilot program, which would not be possible without the generosity of The Baron & Blue Foundation. Their support allows HRI to ensure that our most vulnerable clients do not slip through the cracks.
