programs residential services: domestic violence supportive housing
Transitional Housing for Survivors - Beyond Emergency Shelter
For information, call the Supportive Housing Program Manager at: (616) 459-4681, ext. 120.
Prior to the implementation of Project H.E.A.L, the YWCA conducted a research project with women who had accessed the emergency shelter 3 or more times over the previous 5 years in an effort to determine the most common community gap that resulted in their return to emergency shelter. Over 50% of the women reported the inability to find and sustain safe, affordable housing as the most common reason to return to their assailants and/or the shelter. In addition, survivors frequently reported that low-income housing units were unsafe and too costly for them.
The YWCA West Central Michigan opened the transitional and supportive housing program known as Project H.E.A.L (Healing, Education, Advocacy and Legal services) in August 1997.
Project H.E.A.L responds to the needs of survivors to develop the economic self-sufficiency that increases their capacity to achieve safety. The program is funded by the US Department of HUD, and by the Department of Human Services Temporary Assistance to Needy Families.
The program offers 22 scattered-site, independent-living apartment units to eligible program participants. For up to 24 months, participants are helped to achieve safe long-term independence. While enrolled they receive rent subsidy, child care, transportation, employment assistance, counseling, legal services, and a variety of other services.
