Interfaith Hospitality Network of Burlington County is the only program in the county that offers comprehensive services and keeps families together during their homelessness. Many are not able to reside in others shelters because of the make-up of the family; other shelters are not equipped to offer the homelike environment and supportive nature of IHN.

In Burlington County, IHN was started in 1998, and its main headquarters, known as the IHN Day Center, is in Mount Laurel. There, Patricia Lasusky, director and a member of Corpus Christi Parish, Willingboro, oversees a staff of two – she along with a case manager – where they interview the families, inform them of the program’s requirements and responsibilities they would have upon entering the program, help families through the sometimes dauntless task of filling out stacks of paperwork and put them into contact with a variety of community resources and services that assist them in the pursuit of living independently. Each family also works toward specific goals such as issues of employment, housing, counseling, education, skills, training, health and nutrition, and parenting.

The IHN consists of communities of various faith traditions joining together to provide lodging, meals and assistance to homeless families in the community. Each host congregation provides overnight accommodations and meals for three to five families, or no more than 14 individuals at a time, for one week, three to four times a year. Support congregations are paired with host congregations to provide volunteer manpower and other forms of assistance to other host churches.

The program has a van to shuttle the families to the day center where they can shower and wash their clothes. During the day, those adults who have jobs go to work and children go to school.

For those without jobs, they remain at the day center where they can use the computers to work on resumes or research employment opportunities and receive needed counseling services. In the evening, the families are transported back to the host congregation where they have dinner, socialize and sleep.

Families come to IHN through various social service agencies. One of the main criteria for a family to be accepted is that they must have at least one child who is under age 18.

There are single mothers with children; single fathers with children and two-parent families.

In all, Lasusky said that IHN assisted 233 familis since it began accepting families in 1998. In a year’s time, the maximum number of families that can receive assistance “without cutting their time short,” is 26.

To date, IHN has helped 21 families which included 42 children this year.

One question that Lasusky frequently fields is about the recent economic crisis and its impact on the number of homeless people seeking shelter.

Surprisingly, Lasusky has not seen an increase.

“I say that I’ve always seen a lot of homeless people,” she said.

“We’ve always gotten between 350 and 380 unduplicated calls from people looking for shelter every year and that’s just families. We don’t even count the singles who call us looking for referrals.

Where Lasusky has seen a difference in the county’s homeless population, however, is in the locations from where the residents hail. When she first came on board as IHN director in 2002, Lasusky said the calls usually came from the same five or six towns that have had longstanding poverty issues. Now, she is receiving calls from just about every town in the county, including those that are more affluent – Mansfield, Medford, Marlton and Moorestown.

“That is what I see as different,” she said, “in how much more widespread the homeless problem has become.”

Parish participates in IHN
For 11 years, St. Mary of the Lakes Parish, Medford, has opened its doors and offered a place of rest and welcome to those who are homeless through its participation as a host church in the Interfaith Hospitality Network of Burlington County.

And for 11 years, the volunteers at the county’s participating host churches have come to appreciate and deal with the various circumstances and problems that homeless folks encounter.

Jerry Grever, coordinator of the IHN efforts at St. Mary of the Lakes, recalled how the parish was among the original parishes to become involved as a host church in 1998.

Initially, the parish had an active social justice committee that had become increasingly aware of the needs and problems of homeless and poor people.

With the approval of Father Joseph Tedesco, who was pastor at the time, the social justice committee redirected its attention toward ministering to homeless families.

To prepare for a week of hosting families, Grever said it takes about 80 volunteers to help with the many and varied tasks which include planning and preparing meals, serving as van drivers, and being evening hosts who stay overnight at the parish with the guests.

For the week, the families are housed in the parish’s Emmaus Center, which has kitchen facilities, restrooms, furniture and a big screen TV. Because it’s only one room, the volunteers create individual rooms for the families using office dividers.

In each room there are beds with donated linens, a small snack table and other necessary provisions.

Fellow volunteer Mike Wiecnik, who has worked closely with Grever in the past 11 years, remarked on the “uniqueness” of the IHN program.

“It’s the only program that supports and caters to whole families,” said Wiecnik, who is responsible for lining up the meals, and always making certain that they are nutritious, balanced and varied.

“One of the most impressive things about IHN is that unlike most other homeless shelters which are geared for single parents and often pose an impediment for an entire family to seek its services, at IHN, the core of the family stays together. The children are not hurt by having to have their family split apart.”

Wiecnik noted how other parish ministries can get involved with the IHN and as a result, much more is done to assist families beyond just providing them with roofs over their heads. He recalled how the St.

Vincent de Paul Society outfitted a high school student so that he could attend his prom and provided the father of a family with the appropriate outerwear he needed for his job as a welder, plus another jacket for daily wear. Members of the parish youth group have sponsored meals and joined the families in the evening for some socializing and a Scout troop have also lent a hand in preparing meals and desserts.

Like Wiecnik, Grever admires the dedication and commitment of the IHN volunteers.

“Many have been with us over the past 11 years,” he said. “That to me is a sign that it is a meaningful ministry to them.”