To help local homeless families overcome their housing crises and return to self sufficiency, HomeStretch provides short-term transitional housing in combination with an individualized support program including mentoring, money management and life skills development.  

Families wishing to receive our help must:

• be homeless
• have minor children
• work full time
• be drug and alcohol free
• be legally married (if a two-parent family)
• attend school or work in North Fulton County.

For working families who qualify, HomeStretch is a bridge back to housing self-sufficiency.
The program provides a fully-furnished home and a tailored, support program designed to help the family rebuild its self-sufficiency. While in the program, every HomeStretch family signs a contract which requires them to address the causes that have brought on their homeless or near-homeless state. Clients work with a licensed social worker and a sponsor support team to learn life skills that help reverse the cycle of homelessness. Sponsor teams, formed through local churches, civic groups and businesses, give an average of 400 service hours coupled with individualized mentoring to each family. Each year, the program returns 20-25 formerly homeless families to the North Fulton community who are empowered to avoid welfare and dependency on public agencies.

However, these families do more than maintain independence. They send their children to college, become homeowners, mentor other struggling families and give back to the community that gave to them. For instance, consider a former board member, Lisa Palmer.
She was a graduate of the HomeStretch program and was also the recipient of a Habitat for Humanity House. Her daughter is the first person in her family to attend college. Lisa is just one of the examples of our program’s success.