Monterey Park, CA—September 26th Family Promise of San Gabriel Valley held its first annual fundraising and informational dinner at Luminarias Restaurant. The event raised about $6,000 to start the Family Promise homeless program in the area. It was announced that people can contribute to Club 360 with a monthly donation of $30 or an annual contribution of $360 to help start this homeless program. Club 360 donors will be recognized in the Family Promise newsletter and at a yearly event. Donations can be mailed to Family Promise of San Gabriel Valley, 1005 East Las Tunas Drive, Unit 525 San Gabriel, CA 91776 or contributed via PayPal at http://fpsgv.org/the_need/club_360. Donations will help ‘”turnaround” and transform lives of homeless families. Family Promise of San Gabriel Valley, which is a faith-based, 501 (c) 3 non-profit organization committed to helping homeless families to find employment and housing in order to achieve lasting independence, started in late 2008. There are presently eleven churches who have agreed to participate. The Fundraising Committee is working to raise about $100,000 to get the program up and running to help homeless families. To find out more about Family Promise and how one can participate E-mail http://fpsgv.org/contact_us.

The Family Promise Program started originally in 1988 in Summit, New Jersey and is presently in 41 States with 158 affiliates. More than 130,000 volunteers in 5,000 congregations help more than 45,000 homeless family members annually with 60 percent of them being children. More than 80 percent of those who enter the program find long-term housing in less than two months.

The keynote speaker at the dinner was Professor Gary L. Blasi from the UCLA School of Law Faculty, who pointed out that in 2008 there were 140 homeless families counted in the San Gabriel Valley. Real numbers today are probably twice that number. Homeless families do not know where they will sleep each night or where they will get health care or where their children will go to school. One out of four homeless is a child. By the age of eight, one in three children has mental problems. Homeless children are twice as likely to repeat a grade if they are in school. Loss of jobs and domestic violence are the main causes of family homelessness. Poverty and the cost of housing is the long term continuing cause of homelessness. $1,137 is the average rental charge in Los Angeles County. Someone in a minimum wage job would not have enough left over after rent to feed a family. CalWorks contributes $694 a month for a mother and two children on welfare, which is not enough for a rental payment. Homelessness can happen to anyone. Many people are just one paycheck away from being homeless. Blasi is pleased to see Family Promise starting in the San Gabriel Valley to help homeless families.