Three kids sporting bright smiles rushed to the front door as a team of four brought in a new air conditioning unit to their south Salem apartment. 

The cheerful kids with blonde curly hair asked for everyone’s names and signatures on their front steps in pink chalk. They were eager to show the team their new rooms and toys.

This family of six had finally secured housing four weeks ago after staying at Salem’s Family Promise emergency shelters for six months. Recently, they were able to get an air conditioning unit installed with donations from Salem First Presbyterian Church, a participant in the Family Promise rotational shelter program. 

Once the team had finished installing the AC unit, the oldest boy, 5, ran in front of the new machine pumping fresh air in, on the 93 degree day.

He lifted his shirt and exclaimed, “It’s great to feel cold again.” 

Getting stable housing has taken the family years, after a series of mishaps and a long wait for help.

Ann, now a mother of four, fled an abusive relationship almost six years ago with her then one-and-a-half-year-old and five-month-old at the time. She and her partner asked to be referred to only by their middle names to avoid being recognized.

She left in a rushed moment and was unable to bring important valuables such as the kid’s birth certificates.

Ann moved in with her mother in Marion County, before meeting her partner, Isreal, about three years ago. By then, she had three children, and the couple soon welcomed a fourth baby.

Ann was staying home to care for the kids and Isreal was paying for their rent with his job working at a water restoration company, when a miscommunication set the family on a path to losing housing. 

Israel was offered a better-paying job by an extended family member that fell through after he had already quit his other job. In order to make rent and keep the family afloat, he started driving for Uber Eats, but shortly after his car broke down. 

With no income or money to fix the car, the family was unable to keep up with rent payments and received a 30-day eviction notice about three months later.

Ann had previously applied for a housing voucher while staying with her mother but got a denial letter two weeks before they had to be out of her house. She and Israel had moved to west Salem, and they were no longer eligible for a voucher in Marion County because they were outside county limits. 

Unsure of what to do next, Ann called 211 to learn about local shelter options.

Family Promise was the only one that wouldn’t separate the father from the family. Ann said she knew she wouldn’t be able to manage four kids ages 6, 5, 4 and 1, on her own. 

There was one opening in the program and the family was able to pack up their things and transition into the emergency shelter in January 2023, a week before they had to be out of their apartment. 

Family Promise works with homeless families in the Salem area, providing both emergency shelter and help for families to find more permanent housing.

They do not have a permanent shelter facility and instead, work with a network of local congregations to offer temporary shelter in different church spaces week to week. 

For a family with four kids, moving churches every week and adjusting to a whole new set of rules was a huge challenge. 

“This was super confusing” for the kids, said Ann. 

The shelters would try to make things homey Ann said, providing a warm meal every day so they could have a moment to sit down as a family.

Yet the stay was not without difficulties. Israel said that some places would have 10 kids staying there, all under the age of 6, who would try to stay up playing as long as possible.

Additionally, on some nights the church would still be hosting their normal activities. Israel recalled a Zumba class that ran until 10 p.m. in the neighboring room and a church choir that would practice until 9:30 p.m. 

These distractions made it really tough to get the kids settled and to sleep every night, he said. Yet every morning the families all had to be up at 6:00 a.m. and leave the church by 7:00 a.m.

The family would then head over to the Family Promise day center on Northwest Edgewater Street, where the oldest daughter would get driven to school by the program. After this, Ann and Isreal would meet with the case management team to work toward improving their situation. 

Ann worked to get the kid’s birth certificates, applied for another housing voucher and searched for housing every day. 

Isreal took a GED class to earn his high school degree.

A housing voucher gives a family subsidized rent but comes with a strict list of requirements that can make finding housing in an already tight market nearly impossible.

Ann got a voucher in early 2023, but the requirement of a 3 bedroom apartment for $1,650 a month with all utilities included the options were next to none. 

“At times it felt like we were never going to make it out of this,” said Ann.

The average stay in the program this past year for Family Promise was around 73 days, but every family has different needs, said T.J. Putman, the executive director of Family Promise. 

“We are so proud of them, for a family to be in a place where they need to go into a shelter, they did everything they could to take care of their kids and find housing,” said Putman. “They demonstrated so much resilience in the face of adversity.”

The case management team at Family Promise was able to help get their housing voucher renewed three times over their six-month stay due to the lack of housing options. Ann had her eye on their current apartment for a while, but it was out of their price range and had some utility costs. 

Case managers at Family Promise helped negotiate with the landlords to bring the price down. 

The staff in the program, “gave us the tools to put the footwork in to keep going even when things felt hopeless,” said Ann.

After completing his GED, Israel now hopes to become an electrician or plumber. 

“Going back to school made me feel more confident,” said Isreal, “It feels good to say I actually finished.”  

After staying in the shelters for six months, working every day to find a place the family was officially approved for the apartment and was able to move in late June. Their new ground-floor apartment is part of a smaller complex community in south Salem off Southeast Liberty Road, and each kid gets their own room. 

“It’s nice to feel like an adult again,” said Isreal.  

One of the best parts of having their own place is being able to live how they want to and set their own rules for how they want things done he said. 

Having the air conditioning unit installed was just another factor to help improve their quality of living.

Salem First Presbyterian Church was also able to cover the increased electric bill for the summer while the family focuses on saving up for future rent payments after the voucher expires in a year.  

“It is great to know the kids will have somewhere cool to come back to after playing outside this summer,” said Ann. 

Contact reporter Natalie Sharp: [email protected] or 503-522-6493.

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