Here to help: Hudson site offers transitional housing for homeless families

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1 Here to help: Hudson site offers transitional housing for homeless families Staff photo by Adam Urquhart Brooks Thompson, left, and Beth Bartlett are volunteers from the First Church Nashua Congregational United Church of Christ working in the kitchen of the Anne-Marie House. The two of them are getting things prepared for dinner time. Family Promise of Greater Nashua at Anne-Marie House in Hudson combats homelessness by offering transitional housing with a twist, but that s not all. They take care of a piece of the pie that uniquely focuses on

2 keeping families together, while setting achievable goals for guests on their way to getting back on their feet and finding permanent housing. Anne-Marie House We generally have between nine and 11 families here at any given time, said Amy Freise, director of development and marketing. We re always full. There may be a day or two with families moving out, but we re almost always full. The facility cooks for roughly 32 people a night and goes through 15 gallons of a milk a week with the kids living there. Also, there s a 24-hour volunteer on duty at all times. The volunteer crew is made up of folks from 23 area church congregations and community organizations, as well as individuals from Rivier University. Monday through Thursday they have a sort of community sit down meal, where each family takes to a table in the dining room to enjoy a meal together that s been prepared by volunteers. Family Promise provides plenty of food with a well stocked pantry, clothing for children that s donated regularly and toiletries such as shampoo, conditioner and the like. We tell them don t spend any money until you learn what we already have here, Freise said. During their stay, the adults attend weekly financial literacy and parenting classes. With the financial literacy program the overall goal is to have them save 70 percent of their disposable income in two bank accounts, Executive Director Pamela Small said, adding that three out of the eight families that graduated last summer are now qualified for mortgages. The parenting classes teach parents about different methods of disciplining children, but also how to identify a child s most important needs and do their best to provide for them.

3 When a family first arrives there s a big focus on removing the children from adult situations, Freise said. So, they ve managed to develop different activities and programs to basically allow kids to be kids, including having Rivier University students come in and play with them. They re such good role models for the kids and now these kids want to go to college, too, Freise said. The congregation members also serve as role models. The Anne-Marie House is unique in that it accepts families of all types, whether that may be single fathers, single mothers or two parent families. Small said that there is usually two to four single fathers there at all times. They are a growing homeless population that people don t realize, Small said. Families tend stay at the Anne-Marie House for around 12 months. We want them to be focused on jobs, family and other things needed to create a successful future, Freise said. In 2017, the average stay was 313 days, and throughout the year they served 18 families comprised of 25 adults and 34 children. They provided just under 30,000 meals and among their hundreds of volunteers, 7,686 hours of time were donated to the program. They reported that 83 percent of their 2017 families graduated to sustainable independence. The story of Lewis Wester Freise said families that have graduated provide inspiration to those currently staying at the Anne-Marie House. One thing that happens organically is sometimes families come here and don t have an expanded support network, Freise said. She s seen families come together to cheer each other on, whether it s to celebrate a child s achievements or a parent s job success.

4 One single father who recently graduated the program just before Thanksgiving found his way into it following a suggested from his brother s wife. Lewis Wester, an Army veteran and single father of two twins a boy and a girl who will turn 11-years-old in April, said that without the people at Anne-Marie House he couldn t have found his independence. Wester now lives in Litchfield in a two-bedroom apartment, where he said his kids enjoy having their own place. No one wants to be here (at Anne-Marie House), they have to be, and they help us move on, Wester said. Having moved on, he thought back to his arrival at the Anne-Marie House. It really wasn t bad, sort of similar to the barracks but those are worse. Here it s nice, calm and comforting, Wester said. He said the atmosphere at the house was much friendlier and less strict than the barracks. His kids were 9-years-old when they arrived and he said it didn t take long for them to adjust either. Surprisingly, it didn t take the kids long because there were other kids here. They feed off me and they were OK and adjusted pretty well, Wester said. He said the financial literacy classes were a big help. I learned how important a credit score is, Wester said. While living in Methuen, Mass., Wester joined the Army at 20-years-old. He served for 10 years before getting out in 2001, and from there worked for a defense contractor in Germany. After that, he came back to New England and spent a couple years here before moving out to Iowa with his then, second wife. I moved out there until the economy tanked in 2008 and I raised my right hand again and did active duty for another three to four years and my body gave out, Wester said.

5 He was given a medical discharge for having bad knees and a bad back. That led him to making the move to Missouri where his second wife s parents lived. The second year there went downhill and in 2015 that was it, I packed and left, Wester said. Wester said he and his kids moved back to New England and would go back and forth between his mother s his brother s homes. When he was no longer able to juggle between the two homes, he found his way to Family Promise at the Anne-Marie House. I couldn t stay in my truck, not with two kids. Then I got an interview here, Wester said. He had a room two weeks after he made that initial call and two years later he s got his own place. Two years. It took that long to get in a place where I m comfortable enough not to worry about the next month, week or day, Wester said. Now that he s able to bring dinner home to his kids at their apartment in Litchfield he looks back on his time at the Anne-Marie House and said dinner time was one of his favorites. I miss that the most. Everyone talking to each other and the residents doing clean up. We would social network without Snapchat or Facebook, Wester said. He said during dinner time he would tell his friends about someone he had met that helped him and then point them in their direction. However, when it came time to leave the house he said he was a little nervous at first. It was more than me at stake, I also have my kids, Wester said. I wasn t worried financially. I had a degree of nervousness, but also the confidence that Army gave me. If I m ready my kids are ready. Now, I smile at all I can while doing what I can. Adam Urquhart can be reached at or aurquhart@nashuatelegraph.com.