Union Mission client Spencer Leon Reed, left, speaks with Frank Yaniga, center, who got back on his feet with help from Union Mission and its Executive Director, Dan Carney. Image by Joshua Franzos for The Pittsburgh Foundation © 2020.
Addressing the housing crisis in Westmoreland County By Kitty Julian, director of Communications, The Pittsburgh Foundation, which is affiliated with The Community Foundation of Westmoreland County.
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taff at The Community Foundation of Westmoreland County knew that a lack of emergency shelter beds was a significant issue, but it wasn’t until they began checking in with nonprofits and community advocates that the full “We heard over and over from nonprofit leaders that, if we wanted to improve conditions for the most vulnerable county residents, we had to invest in efforts to address homelessness and housing insecurity,” says
CFWC Executive Director Phil Koch. “People without housing are clearly the most vulnerable and it hit us like a lightning bolt that we aren’t doing enough to help them.” Though the county has a population of 365,000, it has only 69 emergency shelter beds available, making it the poorest performing county of its size in providing And since the available beds are designated for men, women and families, the situation is even more dire for youth facing home-
30 GOALMagazine: A Publication of Go2Goal | Spring/Summer 2020
lessness. Pennsylvania’s Education Children gram estimates that there are about 410 teens in Westmoreland County who don’t have a place to live. That need far outpaces beds at the handful of group homes that provide youth shelter. Philadelphia-based, Bridge2Home, which helps young people find shelter with family or friends, found that eight young people in Westmoreland county were referred to the program in 2019, but only three host families were available that year.
