Travelers Aid Family Services of Philadelphia Family Residence

TAFSP’s Family Residence is a 75-room emergency shelter for homeless families. Families remain and average of 5 months in the shelter as they prepare to secure more permanent living arrangements. The length of stay ranges widely from several weeks for families who have the skills and resources to re-establish a residence after an unexpected loss of housing, to many months for families who have suffered severe traumatic losses and must retool themselves in order to secure a permanent home.

The Residence facility provides safe and decent living quarters for families who have lost their housing. It is open and functional 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. The facility provides all of the basic living and health necessities for families that range in size from a single parent with one child to a couple with 11 children. The Residence’s professional staff of 5 social workers engage residents in high individualized, intensive case management that establishes specific housing, healthcare, education, employment, and financial goals. While in the Family Residence, families are assisted with developing the skills necessary to transition into independent housing, both by TAFSP staff and by referral to outside agency programs.

Throughout the day, various workshops are offered to enrich the resident’s lives. These workshops include: Parenting, Computer Lab, Academic Enrichment & Refresher Course, Life Coach, Life Skills, Employment, and Money Management. In the evenings, participation is encouraged in organized and regular family activities. These include: book club, yoga, arts & crafts, aerobics, and family movie night. Active participation in the workshops and evening services is integrated into a family’s service plan to reinforce the TAFSP Family Residence’s philosophy or promoting self-sufficiency and the progression of families back into the community.

TAFSP’s Family Residence and Community Housing Program (see just below) case management staff often team up to facilitate a continuum of care as families’ transition from the shelter to more permanent housing. TAFSP’s Student Enrichment Program provides a supportive in-house after school and summer camp program for the children who are experiencing this transition as well.

TAFSP established its emergency family shelter for homeless families in the fall of 2002 in response to an unexpected surge in the number of homeless families in the city in the preceding summer. TAFSP identified fully licensed shelter space at the Kirkbride Center (located at the corner of 49th and Market Streets) in September 2002 and quickly established a 70-bed emergency shelter unit for homeless families. The Family Shelter capacity was steadily increased to 305 persons (75 families) by August 2004 due to continuing increase in demand and became the largest family shelter in the City. The Travelers Aid Family Residence continues as a crucial component of the City’s emergency shelter system.

The Family Residence living space is 39,000 square feet, housing 75 bedrooms, 5 shower rooms of varying size, 2 dining rooms, 2 laundry rooms, a Preschool Center, a Student Enrichment center for elementary age school children, and multiple common areas. The Shelter facility is functionally two shelters of relatively equal size connected by a short hallway. Just adjacent to the Shelter is staff office space and classroom for After School programming, totaling 3,000 square feet.

The Family Residence is housed within the Kirkbride center (320,000 square feet), a complex that contains 10 behavioral health hospital and residential units, 3 schools, the CHOP early Head Start Unit, Penn State’s Agricultural College offices, TAFSP’s Administrative offices, TAFSP’s Community Housing and Student Enrichment program space. The Kirkbride Center is located within the secure 21 acre Blackwell Human Services Campus in West Philadelphia that includes a gymnasium, an auditorium, a basketball court, a baseball field, and 6 acres of maintained groups. While the Travelers Aide Family Residence is large by most standards, it is comfortably housed in the Blackwell Campus and benefits from many economies of scale.