Families to be housed in church buildings.
By: Gwen Runkle
In an effort to reach out to homeless families in Princeton and the surrounding area, Trinity Church on Mercer Street has joined the Interfaith Hospitality Network of Mercer County.
Founded in 1998, the nonprofit organization is dedicated to helping homeless families get back on their feet by providing them with shelter, meals and comprehensive assistance.
Beginning Sunday, Trinity Church, as one of the network’s eight host congregations, will welcome its first three or four families. The church will provide the families with fellowship, comfortable sleeping quarters and three meals a day.
Under the arrangement, a family will reside at the church for a week and then move to another church taking part in the program.
"We are absolutely thrilled," said Chrissie Knight, one of the church’s two outreach ministers who helped organize participation in the network. "It will be challenging, but housing is a huge issue and this is a great way to help start solving the problem."
According to Ms. Knight, the church became interested in the Interfaith Hospitality Network of Mercer County about a year and a half ago.
"When my colleague, Peggy Prescott, and I were hired by the Trinity Church to be outreach ministers, part of that involved focusing on social justice," she said. "We looked into the community to see what needs were out there and how Trinity could respond and found that in Princeton and the surrounding area housing is a huge issue."
After a deacon at the church suggested the church look into the Interfaith Hospitality Network, Ms. Knight and Ms. Prescott began researching the program and were quickly impressed. But their work was put on hold after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11.
"We were deeply affected by the tragedy of Sept. 11, but as we emerged we picked it up again and found out that due to some construction at other participating churches, the Interfaith Hospitality Network needed another host church pronto," she said.
"So we sped things up and our vestry, our governing body, fully supported it and the congregation is thrilled."
With such strong support, she said, the church has received a wealth of donations, not only of food and materials but also of time. Congregations from Nassau Presbyterian Church, Unitarian Universalists Congregation of Princeton and the Jewish Center of Princeton also will be helping Trinity Church as it handles the families’ busy schedules, she said.
According to Cornelia Spoor, a Trinity Church Interfaith Hospitality Network Coordinator, the families will arrive on Sunday afternoon to settle in and set up their rooms. The church’s George Thomas room will be used as a living space and the basement Sunday School rooms as bedrooms.
Then, each weekday morning, after an early breakfast and packing brown bag lunches, a network van will drive the families to the Interfaith Hospitality Network’s day center on East Hanover Street in Trenton. Children will be bused to their schools or day care centers and adults will receive counseling, job training and access to employment opportunities.
They also will receive help finding affordable permanent housing and can attend instructional groups that offer guidance in budgeting, parenting, cooking and nutrition.
At the end of the day, the families will be brought back to the church for dinner, she said. Saturdays are typically free days for families to visit relatives, do laundry and generally relax, she said.
The Interfaith Hospitality Network of Mercer County is affiliated with the National Interfaith Hospitality Network, which was established in 1990 in Summit. Nationally, there are over 64 networks supported by more than 40,000 volunteers. In New Jersey, 11 counties have Interfaith Hospitality Networks.
The churches involved in the Interfaith Hospitality Network of Mercer County include the First Presbyterian Church of Hamilton Square, the First Presbyterian Church of Hightstown, the Grace-St. Paul Episcopal Church in Mercerville, the Hopewell Presbyterian Church, Saint Gregory the Great Roman Catholic Church in Hamilton and the Trinity United Methodist Church in Ewing.
For more information about the Interfaith Hospitality Network or how to help at Trinity Church, contact Trinity Church’s Interfaith Hospitality Network coordinators, Ms. Spoor at (609) 426-0465 or Lee Dmochowski at (609) 932-9000.