Peabody housing organization celebrates quarter century

PEABODY – Citizens for Adequate Housing celebrated 25 years of providing housing services for families on the North Shore last week with their “Raising the Roof” event at the Sheraton Ferncroft Hotel in Danvers.Approximately 230 guests attended the fundraising event, including Miss Massachusetts USA Jacqueline Bruno and local radio and television personality Billy Costa, who hosted the night.”Everything went very, very well,” said Director of Development Betsy Leeman. “Our donations have been down by 40 percent over the last five months, so the event was very important to our organization.”CAH is a non-profit organization that works to offer shelter to those who would otherwise be homeless. They own and operate the Inn Transition, a sober-living transitional housing program for homeless families with a parent in recovery; the Inn Between, an emergency shelter; and the Communities Land Trust, which provides families with affordable housing and assistance.At $75 a ticket and with the help of live and silent auctions, last week’s event raised approximately $40,000 to help with their services, said Leeman.”That’s unbelievable given this economy,” she said. “We’ve been running at a deficit and we’re a very fiscally conservative organization. If anything, we work to keep our budget under budget throughout the year.”There are currently 20 families living in the two shelters, which may seem like a small amount to some, but Leeman said the organization would serve more if they weren’t limited by space.”We’re yielding five to six calls from people each day,” she said, adding that most callers are in need of shelter, food and/or clothing assistance.She said of the 20 families, all but two have remained with the shelter for approximately 7-9 months.”They do stay an awfully lot longer than they should,” she said. “But they can’t find affordable housing. The supply, there just isn’t enough.”Finding affordable housing can be difficult for many families, especially in the middle of today’s financial crisis. Leeman said that for families working minimum wage jobs and raising small children, the search is that much harder.”For them to work the number of hours in order to afford housing is next to impossible. They’d have to work 110 hours a week to afford an apartment listed at the market rate,” she explained.And, with the limited number of Section 8 vouchers available to help reduce those costs, Leeman said she’s afraid things are just going to get worse until the housing issue is properly and thoroughly addressed.What her organization needs now is financial and food donations from residents and local businesses that are able and willing to help. To take it one step further, Leeman suggests even adopting a family during the holiday season.However, she cautions that although the need is great around the holidays, it doesn’t end there.”Sometimes you need it more (in the summer),” she said. “The services we provide don’t decrease.”For more information on ways to help, contact Citizens for Adequate Housing at 978-531-9775, or visit the organization online at www.cahns.org.