After a five year process, Family Promise in Anoka County, which helps families experiencing housing insecurity, has a new home of its own in Coon Rapids.
"We have a commercial property that'll be our family services center," said Executive Director David Frei. "Our offices will be here, all of the work that we do with the families will be out of this space, case management and all of those meetings."
That space is located off Coon Rapids Boulevard near Highway 610. Family Promise has also purchased a nearby single family home where one family can stay at a time.
"Traditionally, our program has been 90 days so a family comes in and they have about 90 days to work through three phases of the program: make money, save money and find housing," Frei said.
Right now, with the help of an army of volunteers, the push is on to get the new Family Services Center up and running by late spring. Family Promise in Anoka County, which started serving families in 2010, has received more than one million dollars in Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) funding to get the project this far. A capital campaign is currently underway to raise another $130,000 by April. In the future, they'd like to raise even more funding for additional housing options.
If you'd like to donate your time or money, or just learn more about the project, go to the Family Promise in Anoka County website.