Homeless families in the Erie community will have a little more help, thanks to Community Shelter Services, 655 W. 16th St.

The organization on Tuesday held a grand opening for two apartments for homeless families who need more time, space and assistance until they find a permanent home.

The units are called the Jane Earll Family Apartments, after state Sen. Jane Earll, of Fairview Township, R-49th Dist., who obtained about $21,000 in state funds for the project.

Kathleen Cancilla, executive director of Community Shelter Services, said the apartments will address the needs of homeless families who need longer-term assistance and more space.

Community Shelter Services now helps about 70 homeless families with 200 children or more a year at its facility.

She said homeless families normally spend two or three months until they can find a permanent home. But some families find it difficult to find housing, especially with federal cutbacks.

“When a family comes into the shelter, sometimes they have to stay a very long time living — a whole family — in a bedroom,” she said.

The apartments will have some separate bedrooms as well as kitchen space.

“This gives the family an opportunity to live a life more conductive to a family,” she said.

Cancilla said the organization is already helping to meet the needs of single homeless people with single rooms and programs at the Lodge on Sass at West Ninth and Sassafras streets and at the shelter on West 16th Street.

“We need that same concept for families that struggle to remain housed,” she said.

She is hoping to add some additional apartments for families in the neighborhood.

“My real goal is about the children,” she said. “To be able to create a more stable lifestyle for children who are homeless now so that their lives will be changed.”

Earll said she has worked with Community Shelter Services for many years.

“We are lucky in this community to have Community Shelter Services,” she said. “Their mission is so critically important to provide the fundamentals to people in need, whether it be shelter or food or other types of help.”

Source: The Erie TImes
By: George Miller