New Hope Apartments Program
The Catholic Charities New Hope Apartments program lifts homeless families out of poverty. The program assists families with renting an apartment, then aids the family in seeking employment or job training, paying down debt, and opening a savings account. The program also teaches living skills and promotes confidence and independence in clients who have faced daunting challenges and deep struggles.
Initially the New Hope program pays rent and utilities and provides food for three balanced meals a day, personal care products, and needed transportation. With time, the families pay utilities and an increasing portion of their own rent.
Currently, New Hope supports a total of 19 families in apartments in Chicago and area suburbs.
OLPH Involvement
Our Lady of Perpetual Help extends the reach of the New Hope Apartments program in several ways. OLPH pays the entire rent for one family as it progresses through the program. In addition, OLPH shares with St. Catherine Laboure and St. Phillip the Apostle the two-year rent commitment for a second family. Our three parishes have all established a nice connection with “our” families and with each other.
OLPH and partnering parishes also help Catholic Charities furnish the apartments using the Sharing Room resources. The new family is given the furnishings as their own, and the supporting parishes also present the new residents with a Welcome Basket.
This simple program is very real. Families who have gone through the New Hope program find their paths in life to be profoundly changed. From living in shelters and in their cars with unimaginable stress, they are given new lives of hope, security, and dignity.
OLPH is blessed to be a part of this powerful force for justice and hope. You can support Project Hope by donating to Sister Paulanne's Needy Family Fund.