| Mission Statement |
The mission of Housing Families First is to provide families experiencing homelessness with the tools to achieve housing stability. Founded in 2001 as Hilliard House, our organization offers safe, supportive shelter for families. But, we do much more. Quickly stabilizing families in permanent housing is our top priority. We carry out our mission through three programs. Our emergency shelter, commonly known as Hilliard House, gets families off the street and offers housing-focused services to help them access the best permanent housing options available. Providing a temporary home for over 200 children and adults each year, our shelter is the largest family shelter in Greater Richmond and is the only fully handicapped-accessible shelter for families.
Our rapid re-housing program moves literally homeless families and single women – staying in our own shelter, other local shelters, and the streets – into safe, affordable homes. Then, our case management team works with families to connect them with community resources that help them keep their housing, increase income, cope with stress, and achieve long-term housing stability.
Our newest program is the regional Homeless Crisis Line, which is operated in collaboration with three other nonprofits. The goal of the Homeless Crisis Line is to help families draw on their own support system to re-stabilize their housing, when possible, and to gather information for referral to homeless services, if needed. |
