the Lehigh Valley\u2019s housing shortage<\/a>. It\u2019s even luckier that Scott now rents as part of a new transitional housing program, one that gives support and a place to stay to people who may otherwise not find them.<\/p>\n\u201cI\u2019m so glad,\u201d she said. \u201cI\u2019m [at] a loss of words right now.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Sixth Street Shelter, at 219 N. Sixth St. in Allentown, held a ribbon-cutting ceremony Monday morning for transitional housing units that are part of the shelter\u2019s new program, Step Up.<\/p>\n
Step Up lets families at the shelter rent one of five apartments for up to 18 to 24 months, a news release said, while still receiving shelter resources like case management.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is about dignity, choice and time,\u201d said Dawn Godshall, CEO of Community Action Lehigh Valley, which operates the shelter. \u201cTime to stabilize income, build savings and strengthen the roots in our neighborhoods.\u201d<\/p>\n
Scott and her two sons, 8-year-old Nazim and 4-year-old Zyon, were staying at the shelter since September before they moved into the apartment, where things like furniture and Wi-Fi are provided for.<\/p>\n
She added that especially with her poor credit, an advantage of Step Up is letting her rent an apartment at all when other landlords may not.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m a single mom and this program does things to you as a mom \u2026 because you already feel like you\u2019re failing,\u201d Scott said. \u201cBecause your kids are in a shelter or you don\u2019t have a home for them. This never felt like that for us here. Even in the shelter part, it\u2019s your own space and you have rules and regulations, but you got to be with your kids and have that time. It\u2019s not someone trying to make you look bad or say you can\u2019t make it. They give you the ups and the praise that you need to move forward.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tjwana Reed, director of the shelter and Step Up, said the program came after seeing residents\u2019 desperate situations as their stays at the shelter were coming to an end. The shelter lets families stay for up to 90 days, as long as they have at least one child under 18 staying with them.<\/p>\n
Reed said Step Up offers affordable rates, in-house mental health services, financial literacy, and support for parenting and community building. It also avoids application fees, background checks and income restrictions.<\/p>\n
Step Up participants need stable income and must save 10% of it, Reed said, and can leave the program to find housing elsewhere.<\/p>\n
\u201cStep Up is not just a transitional housing program,\u201d Reed said. \u201cIt is an intentional, transformational and restorative program. We help build a family back up so they can regain hope in what their future holds. The families chosen for our opening round are incredible, resilient, determined and fierce. I am looking forward to seeing how well they do in our program.\u201d<\/p>\n
Most of the units are around 1,500 square feet and have two bedrooms and one bathroom, Reed said, except for one that is set up as three bedrooms and one bathroom.<\/p>\n
She hopes they can also eventually provide additional housing units under Step Up.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re at a crucial time here in the Lehigh Valley,\u201d state Sen. Nick Miller, D-Lehigh, said at the ceremony. \u201cNot just energy or health care, but housing and having consistent services to deliver a hand up to get people on their feet [and] back into the workforce \u2014 it\u2019s crucial to have programs just like that.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Amira Scott and her family on Monday moved into their new Allentown apartment, complete with a TV, dining…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":79428,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[119,121,120,433,182,139,28,432],"class_list":{"0":"post-79427","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-allentown","8":"tag-allentown","9":"tag-allentown-headlines","10":"tag-allentown-news","11":"tag-lehigh-county","12":"tag-local-news","13":"tag-news","14":"tag-pennsylvania","15":"tag-top-stories-tmc"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79427","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=79427"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79427\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/79428"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=79427"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=79427"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=79427"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}