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You can make a difference for those who are pregnant and facing homelessness
What do housing and homelessness have to do with MOMS?
More than ever before, MOMS staff of community health workers and nurse case managers are seeing mothers and babies in our program who are homeless or at risk of losing a stable place to live.
As you can imagine, housing is fundamental to the health of an expectant mother and her children.
It’s a chain reaction. When bills cannot be paid and a family loses their housing, a myriad of problems occur: nutrition suffers, medical or other vital appointments cannot be kept, stress and anxiety increase, and difficult choices are made. When this happens, the health of a pregnant woman and her baby are at risk.
This is when connection to a MOMS maternal child health worker is critical to the health and well-being of the mom and baby.
- Gwen and her husband have a 16-year-old son and 9-month-old baby. Gwen experienced high levels of stress and anxiety during her pregnancy due to financial struggles and the risk of becoming homeless. Then, during her postpartum recovery, she was a victim of a violent crime. The trauma of that experience led to PTSD.
- Ana is a single mother of a 1-month-old baby boy. Ana had been hospitalized due to having a high-risk pregnancy. She recently learned she was laid off from work because her employer sold the company. She hopes to find a secure job to provide for her child.
- A young family of four is struggling financially. Mom is not working because of a high-risk pregnancy due to gestational diabetes. Father’s employment fluctuates. They cannot afford rent and groceries and are under a great deal of stress.
- A family of four can barely pay for the single room they rent. Mom is 8 months pregnant. Recently, dad had to return to his home country. Friends have been letting her borrow money as she looks for work. Soon, a newborn will be sharing the room with mom and her two other children.
- Erika and her three children – including her newborn and a 2-year-old toddler on the Autism spectrum – had trouble finding an apartment. Her income wasn’t low enough to qualify for public support, but she couldn’t afford the cost of rent either. At night, they slept in a shelter, but during the day, they had to be out. They would spend long days in her car because her toddler was disruptive in public places. Her MOMS case manager was able to help her find affordable, permanent housing.
MOMS is able to embrace these families early – during pregnancy – when we can make a lasting difference.
By meeting with a mom each month through the baby’s first year, we build her trust along the way and get to know her and her family intimately. We don’t just provide pregnancy education, we help her navigate health care, housing, food and other basic resources to ensure stability and security for the mom, baby and family. Our case workers coach her so she can become more self-sufficient, confident and empowered.
- When Maria’s husband was out of work for four months this year, they fell behind on their rent and other bills. “I truly never imagined we would be in this situation,” the mom of six said. Mari, her MOMS maternal child health worker, connected her with available housing resources, as well as diapers, clothing and links to food pantries. “We owed almost $9,000 in bills and then got a 3-day eviction notice,” Maria said. “We moved into a family member’s home and were sleeping in their living room. I was so stressed out. I applied to all the programs and was told it would take months to get approved. I tried everything. My husband found work again, but we simply didn’t have the $5,000 we needed for a security deposit and first month’s rent. I was on every list and had lost hope. But Mari was persistent and said, ‘Let me try.’ And I’m so glad she did. With her referral to the housing system through MOMS, we were approved for a rental deposit over the course of a weekend. If it wasn’t for Mari, we would still be on the waiting list. Honestly, she helped us a lot. I am so grateful.”
Home visiting has a return on investment of $1.80 to $5.70 of every dollar spent.
MOMS work goes beyond pregnancy health education. Through our Healthy Beginnings Home Visitation program, we don’t only focus on prenatal and postpartum health, maternal mental health and infant health & development; we connect to learn the needs of struggling families and work to find basic resources to keep them healthy and stable.
You can fund a home visit that can make all the difference in a new life.
Help us keep them healthy and go beyond education to meet needs where they are.
We can’t do it without you. Thank you.
