J.D. Long-Garía/CATHOLIC SUN

Matthew and Laura Treacy pose for a photo June 2 in Catholic Charities’ transitional housing in Flagstaff. The Treacy family moved to Arizona from Philadelphia, but had been unable to secure a job.

Catholic Charities finds
homes for those in need

So she and her husband left. They’d heard there were jobs in Flagstaff, so they brought the family there. Well, as it turned out, there weren’t any jobs to speak of and the Treacy family wound up living in a cheap hotel. 

“We were never great at budgeting our money,” Treacy confessed. “We just overspent on everyday things.”

Money was getting tighter and tighter, and most homeless shelters in Flagstaff won’t put up an entire family. Then Treacy heard about Catholic Charities.

Their transitional housing program provides accommodations for families for up to two years. During that time, Catholic Charities helps them get employed, back on their feet and into permanent housing.

“It’s helped the kids to have a stable home,” Treacy said. “Not living week to week is a big thing for us.”

It’s a big thing for a growing number of people in this economy.

“People either can’t find jobs or have lost jobs,” said Sandi Flores, housing programs coordinator for Catholic Charities. The cost of living in Flagstaff, a college town, can get pretty steep.

There’s also a transient homeless population. The city, a ganglion of train tracks, sees more homeless people during the mild summer months. Some homeless individuals suffer from mental illness or substance abuse. Sometimes the substance abuse led to a lost job, other times it was just the economy.

Four years ago, the National Coalition for the Homeless ranked Flagstaff as the 10th “meanest” city toward homeless people. (Phoenix ranked 17th.) The finding was based on the laws and practices that criminalize homeless persons.

Flagstaff’s camping ordinance, which prohibits camping on public property, led in part to the poor ranking.

But according to Flores, the city has taken great strides since then. Catholic Charities alone has 25 units for homeless people, including 12 for chronically homeless persons. Six of those units were added in 2006.

But it’s not enough. More than 20 families are currently on the waiting list.

Catholic Charities is also working with local law enforcement and other agencies to increase awareness. The collaboration helps the different agencies target specific needs.

The Flagstaff effort also includes a more aggressive outreach. Catholic Charities’ Projects for Assistance in Transition from Homelessness, or PATH, sends workers out to seek homeless people.

“We intercept people on the streets, under bridges, anywhere we can think of,” said Nick Wood, a homeless outreach specialist.

While they give some assistance to anyone who needs it, they’re particularly looking for those who suffer from mental illness. Individuals struggling with mental illness won’t always seek the help they need.

“Our goal is to get the people with mental illness into treatment,” Wood said.

From January to March, this program came across 548 individuals and Catholic Charities workers enrolled 22 of them into a program.

But helping homeless people really requires having a home for them.

“The more housing we have, the better,” Flores said.

The housing helps families like Aaron Gencarelle’s. After his wife’s job opportunity fell through in Oregon, the family moved back to Flagstaff. A few times, they split up and stayed at different shelters, but his two girls sometimes wound up sleeping on the floor in the overflow.

So then they stayed in the car for a while. They couldn’t find a place that would take them in together, as a family.

“We weren’t eating together. We weren’t sleeping together,” Gencarelle said. It was killing them.

But then they, like the Treacys, heard about Catholic Charities. It wasn’t just a place to sleep. They’ve benefited from the family resource center and a case worker.

Gencarelle’s wife went to small business school and started freelancing as a graphic artist. Catholic Charities found a family to adopt them so the two girls could have a nice Christmas.

“If it wasn’t for this place, we’d be living on the streets or in the woods,” Gencarelle said of the modest apartment. “This has always felt like home for us.”

But it isn’t free. To stay, residents have to get a job and pay minimal rent. Eventually, families become self-sufficient again.

“The opportunity we’ve been given, I’m so grateful for,” Treacy said. “You don’t get many chances like this — to get your life back together again.”