Homeless families with medical needs face increased challenges. Healing House, scheduled to open next month, will provide a safe place for them.
Being homeless is difficult and traumatic in any circumstance. However, families with medical needs face increased challenges. Shelters in our community provide a much-needed place for families to sleep, but are unable to provide a place for them to go during the day. For a child who recently had surgery or a mother who just delivered a baby, having a place to rest and recover during daytime hours is essential.
In these situations, Healing House will make all the difference. Healing House is a recuperative care facility for homeless families, the first of its kind in Wisconsin. It provides a safe place for families when someone needs to prepare for or recover from a medical procedure, childbirth, hospitalization or something similar. More than just a shelter, Healing House is open 24 hours a day, offering care to families in need by medically trained staff and volunteers for up to 28 days. The eight-bed facility provides families with three meals a day, child care assistance and case management. Healing House, scheduled to open in November, is a joint effort through MUM (Madison-area Urban Ministry) and The Road Home. The Road Home case managers will work with families during their stay to develop a plan for securing and maintaining housing upon their release. “As we developed our model for Healing House, we knew that that one of the key outcome measures would be people leaving Healing House into housing and retaining their housing long term,” said Linda Ketcham, Executive Director of MUM. “With The Road Home providing the housing case management, we are confident that those outcomes will be achieved.”