A homeless mother with no means to care for her children is a disheartening vision to image. Yet unfortunately, for many women this cold hard fact is one that they live with from day to day. The effects of homelessness are brutal and can leave a devastating impact on the lives it attempts to consume. At St. Joseph's Home, located in Jersey City New Jersey, a life-line is extended to women and children in need of refuge. 

St. Joseph's Home provides homeless women and their children 18 months of supportive, communal living as they work to improve their lives and attain permanent, affordable housing. The privacy that is afforded by a bedroom door that can be locked is extremely precious to these families. Likewise, the opportunity for the women to personalize their own space is a very new one in which they take great pride.

While at the Home, which is comprised of 28 separate bedrooms with common living and dining areas, the women share cooking and cleaning responsibilities. This promotes respect for their physical surroundings, the welfare of others and the general quality of life.

To ensure that the families derive the maximum benefit from their stay at St. Joseph's Home, they receive ongoing support services from a team of professionals. The services include counseling, crisis intervention, family therapy, health education, parenting, and family budgeting.

Once a family transitions out of St. Joseph's Home they are provided with six months of formal counseling, home visits and child care support while on their own. St. Joseph's Home is one of the most successful transitional housing facilities in the region and has become a model for similar programs.

As a program of the York Street Project, St. Joseph's Home strives to give women and their children a sense of hope to achieve the life of self-sufficiency they seek after. Many families that have been through St. Joseph's are well on their way to a future filled with promise. For more information please contact Sr. Rosemary Coffey, csjp, Director of St. Joseph's Home at (201) 413-9280 or e-mail Susanne Byrne at sbyrne@yorkstreetproject.org.