History

In the Beginning

PLMFT was founded as Pan Lutheran Ministries on March 11, 1980 by five people from three Wake County Lutheran churches with the mission to provide housing and support to those in need, to involve volunteers, and to advocate for those in need of adequate housing. The main focus has always been on homeless families with children. The first program established was Samaritan Inn, a set of apartments near Wake Medical Center, used by low income out-of-town families who have a critically ill member of the family in the hospital. In 1981, Agape Place opened on East Jones Street in Raleigh, housing homeless families (11 individuals) on a short term, emergency basis. In 1987, a long-term transitional housing program, called "Families Together, began in rented apartments on Brooks Avenue. "Families Together" included intensive case management and life-skills training for homeless families.

Pan Lutheran Ministries in the 1990's

In 1995, 7 additional transitional apartments and one administrative office were built by Habitat for Humanity at our location on Plainview Drive/Polly Street in Raleigh. In 1998 PLM experienced considerable expansion when PLM and other agencies received a multi-year grant from SAMHSA (Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration of the U.S. Government) to study precisely what types and length of services best empower homeless families. In 2000, the City of Raleigh contracted with PLM to take over operation of nine two-bedroom transitional apartments on Poole Road for homeless families. PLM also received funding through the State of North Carolina, and then through Wake County, to double the size, to 28 families, of our emergency, short term program, called "Wake Family Entry." In 2004, after 22 years of ministry, Agape Place was sold. The agency committed to a model of individual units for each family, rather than congregate living. At the Fall, 2004 retreat, the Board of Directors decided to take necessary steps that would open this faith based ministry to other denominations. On June 27, 2005 the Board of Directors changed the name of Pan Lutheran Ministries to PLM Families Together (PLMFT), to emphasize the "Families Together" value in all our programs, to honor its Lutheran heritage and to be inclusive of a new ecumenical identity.

PLM Families Together from 2000-2011

In Spring, 2006, the original Samaritan Inn program came to a close. All resources were focused on homeless families within the local area, rather than those who may have come from out of town for medical purposes. One year later, PLMFT began using all of its apartment units on a short-term, 3-4 month basis to house families, because a focused time period proved to be more successful for families and more families could be served each year as we tried to address the backlog of families in crisis on the waiting list. In addition, we lost the use of nine 2-bedroom units at 1725-1729 Poole Road – owned by the City, when the sewer line broke making the site uninhabitable. This was the main location of the long-term transitional program. It is a best practice to move families into permanent housing as quickly as possible and then provide ongoing after care, rather than keeping families in shelter programs longer. Thus, the long-term transitional program ended by May, 2007.

In the last few years, PLM Families Together has managed 35 apartments - 8 at Plainveiw (7, 3-bedrooms for families and 1 for our administrative offices) and 27 at Brookside (25, 1 & 2-bedroom units for families, 1 unit for children's enrichment and other programming and 1 for Program offices). We served an average of 125 families per year - approximately 430-450 individuals. Approximately 75% of families who complete the program move successfully into stable housing and around the same percentage maintain that stability through 9 months of aftercare. The economic downturn continuing from 2008 has made a significant impact on individuals' capacity to gain and maintain adequate employment. We have found that we spend as much time helping families with employment issues as with finding stable housing. We continued to maintain a waiting list of more that 100 families who wait for 3-6 months to receive services.

The Latest Developments - 2011-2012

A few major changes are developing in 2011-12 in relation to the way PLM Families Together provides services and as Wake County addresses the issues of homelessness as a whole community. We are releasing our rental units at Brookside and have consolidated offices at 908-101 Plainview Drive. In addition, we are starting two new pilot projects.

Coordinated Intake
PLM Families Together, supported by Wake County and in collaboration with The Women's Center, will be staffing a Coordinated Intake center as an initial point of entry for all housing related services for single women and families who are homeless or at imminent risk of becoming homeless. Single women or families may call or walk in to the Cooridinated Intake office where they will speak with a counselor, complete an assessment and be paired up with the most appropriate and available services. This pilot project is still in development. Keep watching our website for updated information.

Re-housing Support Services
PLM Families Together is developing a new housing service that moves families directly from homelessness into housing or from other shelters into housing. Rather than having families move from shelter program to shelter program in today's times when the short term stay at shelters is not enough for family stabilization, we will focus on stable housing first. Once housed, we will continue to work with the family for 12 months, helping them learn the skills for budgeting and working with landlords that is needed to maintain that housing. Housing first reduces the number of transitions for the family. Initial rental subsidy will be available for housing and will gradually decrease as families meet their goals; a less expensive model than renting our own apartments.

There are three key elements that make this program stronger than simple financial assistance programs that you may have seen in the past -
1. Landlord relationships: PLM Families Together will provide support and mediation between landlords and tenants, helping to resolve issues before the need for eviction.
2. Year-long Mentor Advocate support: our skilled Mentor Advocates will work with families for one year after housing is obtained. They will help families to set and meet their goals, manage household budgets, increase and maintain employment, access resources, and ultimately maintain their housing stability.
3. Year-long incentive program: we will continue our escrow savings program to help families develop the habit of saving. We will also offer other supportive services and concrete assistance such as bus passes, gift cards, and donated household supplies as incentives for meeting goals, attending workshops, and increasing capacity to maintain stability.

The outcomes for serving homeless families is shifting - once it was our desire to simply shelter those who had no shelter . . . then we realized that quality of life during this traumatic transition is critical and keeping families together in normalized settings (apartments) was the goal . . . over time we realized that there is a longer-term view of helping families to become stably housed . . . now we know, to end homelessness, we must help families to maintain that stability and we must address homelessness as a community, in collaboration with other service providers, our neighbors, the business community, our churches, and our government . . . we must all work together.