Located in the city of Meadville, Pennsylvania formerly the tool and dye capital of the world, the mission of the Crawford County Coalition on Housing Needs is to identify and assess the housing needs of the homeless and near homeless in Crawford County. We also work to consult, communicate and provide information to our community about housing services and work to ensure that decent, affordable housing continues to exist and support individuals in Crawford County.
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For families, the home is the cornerstone to healthy, happy lives and is especially important for the stability and development of children. We also believe that a stable home is an important first step in being able to address personal challenges for individuals of many walks of life including veterans, transition aged youth, domestic violence survivors, people with mental illness, physical disabilities and those in recovery from addictions to drugs and alcohol.
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We operate a transitional housing building, an emergency shelter, and affordable housing in the form of apartments and houses with the deeply held belief that all county residents should have access to affordable, decent and healthy housing. The Housing Coalition oversees the Emergency Shelter which is Crawford County's only shelter that allows families to stay intact in times of housing crisis. By providing 5 individual apartments as shelters, mothers, fathers and teenaged sons who would normally be separated into gender-specific shelters are able to stay with their families. Without the Emergency Shelter, single mothers with male children over the age of 12 would be separated, and there is no other option for shelter in the entire county for these boys.
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Currently, however, there is a leak in the Emergency Shelter roof which if left as is, could spread black mold throughout the building, creating a public health crisis. In order to continue to provide housing for families, we need to not only fix the hole in the roof, but replace it. Winter is coming, and the approaching snow and freezing temperatures will only exacerbate this problem.
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The demand for this basic community need of family shelter is high, and cannot be met without the existence of our shelter apartments. The waiting list for the Emergency Shelter has consistently had an average of 6 families per week seeking shelter. These families have limited options while on the waiting list; staying with people whom they often feel threaten their family’s security, staying in cars or other inhabitable places, or dividing the family and seeking shelter separately.
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We need your help to ensure that families and individuals in need in Crawford County have a safe place to sleep while they get back on their feet and work toward attaining permanent housing. Help us reach our goal of raising $30,000.
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P.S. Please remember that some of the individuals seeking shelter this winter are not from Crawford County and do not know what to expect of our chilling winters. Please help us reach our goal, and keep families safe.
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Did you know that there are four homeless shelters in Meadville? All but one (the EMS) requires specific genders to stay in each shelter, making it difficult for families in housing crisis to find a safe place to get back on their feet.
Shelter Facts!
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Last year over 45 people sought shelter at the South Main Emergency Shelter.
Without a place like EMS, tens of families would be left in unsafe housing situations.
Did You Know?
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On any given night, there are over 600,000 homeless people in the U.S., according to the US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). Most people are living in shelters, some sort of transitional housing, or living somewhere not meant for human habitation.
Over half a million people are homeless
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HUD reports that on any given night, over 138,000 of the homeless in the U.S. are children under the age of 18. Thousands of them are unaccompanied.
One quarter of homeless people are children
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