A Baby's Breath: July E-news

For the past 7 years, A Baby’s Breath has had the privilege of offering housing to pregnant, homeless clients. This was due to the partnership we have had with St. Ann’s parish. We are so grateful for the opportunity, however, 2 years ago, we were informed that our building was being sold and we were not able to purchase the building. It was to be sold as a block to our neighbor in the complex of buildings, Ann’s Heart. We remained hopeful that we would be able to stay in the space that we lovingly transitioned to offer housing, but in June, we were given notice that our lease was not getting renewed. Our organization invested approximately $100,000 to facilitate two zoning use changes. While it is a big disappointment for our organization to lose this opportunity, we will remain hopeful and place our trust in God that he will provide the space needed to continue with our housing services. 

The challenges that single mothers face are very difficult. Many of our moms do not have a college degree or a job that can support independent living and are choosing life despite these obstacles. Our other programs we offer include our Independence services which provide financial incentives for finishing school or getting a better-paying job that can support their families. We also have a Catholic identity we teach in our services including their lifestyle. If we have a single client, we teach Chastity. If we have clients who are Catholic, we encourage going back to Confession and Baptizing their children. While we help clients of all faiths, we maintain our Catholic mission by remaining independent from government funding.. 

Many of the housing resources in the area do accept government funding and this means they must accept clients that the government chooses. We have had many lessons over the past 7 years and one of them is that we can’t provide housing to some clients, primarily due to safety concerns for our residents and our house mom. We have provided housing for 24 homeless clients at great savings to taxpayers. If we accepted government funding for providing housing, the organization would have been able to collect $13 million over the past 7 years. Instead, our volunteer-based organization provided housing for $100,000 which was a huge savings for taxpayers. It also illuminates how it was a savings for us to utilize the space for housing at $10,000/year. It was a win-win.  

To summarize, we are saddened by our five-month notice to vacate our home, but we look forward to the challenge of finding a new home to provide our precious Catholic services.