Open hearts

HomeFront brings some holiday cheer in the midst of a challenging climate

By: Pat Summers
   Under a lighted Christmas tree at the Lawrence library, beautifully wrapped presents, including three spiffy new bicycles it would be a shame to wrap, were mouth-wateringly arranged last week. Each gift was earmarked for a specific child; it was the very thing that child had asked for, down to color and size.
   The library was just one site of many in the area collecting gifts for some 2,000 homeless and needy children of HomeFront, the nonprofit organization that works to break the cycle of poverty and to end homelessness. This holiday gift program was only one of many — most of them, year-round —- that HomeFront offers homeless people and those in transition in Mercer County.
   Initially, the children’s requests had been fastened on the tree. Library patrons, aka caring people, could look them over, consider which to provide and take requests with them as reminders of which wishes they would make come true. This week, the presents they brought back to the library are being delivered to parents to give their children.
   "This is when folks give thanks for their own blessings and remember the less fortunate," says Connie Mercer, HomeFront’s executive director. But 2005, punctuated as it was with global catastrophes — tsunamis, earthquakes and hurricanes — offered charitable people year-round opportunities to do that. Calls for donations, aid and relief efforts were international and practically never-ending, and those who cared just kept on giving.
   Through all the horrors, though, one condition never went away: homelessness, right here, in every municipality of Mercer County. Those without homes experience the most basic deprivation: no sanctuary, no port in a storm, no place to call their own.
   "Being homeless yourself is pretty horrible," Ms. Mercer says. "But when you have kids and you can’t put a roof over their heads … " The average age of a homeless person in Mercer County is 7, and most clients are women who are heads of households (an ironic term, come to think of it).
   Expressing her concern, Ms. Mercer mentions "significantly less government funding to agencies and people in need." Lowered support for food stamps and heating assistance (at a time when heating costs are soaring) will have "a major impact on people trying to keep their heads above water," she says.
   And illustrating the truism that no agency is an island, Hurricane Katrina added to HomeFront’s client base with nine evacuee families needing services. Without a doubt, that Gulf Coast bell tolled for Mercer County, too. In a case of "What goes around, comes around," charity doesn’t always begin at home, but it often winds up there — at HomeFront.
   "Regular" donors are with HomeFront through thick and thin, Ms. Mercer says. It’s the "spontaneous" donors and corporations with finite budgets that she worries about. Besides financial aid, gifts to HomeFront include goods and services for the organization’s clients. Food, cars, dental services and art lessons are among the ways that people help out.
   Welcome as it is, such generosity is only the beginning. HomeFront staff and volunteers assume the myriad hidden costs behind most gifts. For instance, as Ms. Mercer puts it, "Our folks don’t have transportation, by and large." So although a dentist may donate her or his services, "we must get the client there."
   People willingly donate clothes, she says — "We sometimes drown in used clothing" — but getting those garments sorted and onto racks in HomeFront’s "FreeStore" is what takes time. Filled with donated items to furnish a home and clothe its residents, the store is open two or three days a week so clients with vouchers can shop for pots and pans, glass- and silverware, furniture and even musical instruments.
   "We love it when kids give us money," Ms. Mercer says. This happens, for instance, with school children who have learned through a HomeFront outreach program that "homeless folks are not bad." But the sweetest gift of all is "when a client gives to help someone else get on their feet."
   Signaled by the Seward Johnson sculpture of a girl and boy in front, HomeFront, based in Lawrence, is a welcoming place. The entryway features a wall-tree filled with brass plaques identifying donors, and farther inside, upbeat colors that now include vivid poinsettias match the air of positive activity. Clients can wait in a pleasant, window-filled room near a semi-circular reception counter.
   It’s usually not a fire or a sudden crisis that causes homelessness; most of HomeFront’s clients are "poverty nomads." They move from their own place to a sister’s place, to a church friend’s place, Ms. Mercer explains, through a series of very temporary stops until support systems run out. By then, they’re exhausted. "My folks are too life-weary to howl," she says.
   HomeFront’s extensive services include housing, food, case management, special services, pro bono services and kids’ programs. The organization’s Web site, a model of brevity and simple clarity, details each one. Housing, for instance, incorporates emergency, transitional and permanent — the last being the goal for all HomeFront families.
   "We’ve had good luck getting children out of hotel rooms and into shelters. One of the motels on Route 1 has closed," notes Ms. Mercer.
   Food reaches those who need it through motel meals (delivered to families housed in motels), volunteer-sponsored meals and the HomeFront food pantry, through which more than 700 low-income families get bags of food each month. Food is available three days a week, with staggered pick-up times on Monday, Tuesday and Thursday.
   All families serviced by HomeFront receive case management that focuses on helping them acquire and maintain permanent housing. "Driving to Independence," Furnish the Future" and the organization’s FreeStore are the elements of HomeFront’s "special services."
   Pro bono services takes in donations by local professionals, offering both time and expertise to HomeFront clients. Finally, "kids’ programs" includes pre-school and after school offerings, individual tutoring, both photography and summer camps, and birthday presents: Every child gets a cake and a present on her or his natal day.
   In two short Web site paragraphs titled "Our Success," the numbers for Mercer County people and families in crisis who have been helped by HomeFront say it all. They bear out another statement there: "Your donation will change lives right here in Mercer County."
HomeFront, 1880 Princeton Ave., Lawrence NJ 08648. (609) 989-9417. www.HomeFrontNJ.org. Donations can be made by mail, phone (ext. 26) or online.