HARRISBURG, Pa. (WHTM) -- A Harrisburg non-profit is opening a new community drop-in center to make it easier for women to get the help they need.
Shalom House is an emergency shelter for women and children based in Allison Hill.
Being homeless doesn't mean just living on the streets.
"The time I was homeless I was living in my car. And then Help Ministries helped me pay for a hotel and Shalom House helped me pay for a hotel too at the same time," Yaira Cruz said.
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Cruz was homeless for almost a year, unable to get an apartment because of a high deposit and prior eviction due to job loss.
"The deposit was too high for what I could afford. And at the moment nobody wanted to take somebody that was already evicted before," Cruz said.
She now has an apartment for her and her two kids. Shalom House assisted with necessities.
"Rent, daycare, health insurance living, help you with a living situation, jobs," Cruz said.
The nonprofit has a 22-bed shelter for temporary stays on South 15th Street and has plans to transform an old church into 14 apartments.
"But how do we prevent them from becoming homeless in the future? So my idea of developing this drop-in center was to provide community members with a safe place within their community to come in and get help," Executive Director Kyla Harvey said.
The drop-in center, open two days a week, will be where women can be connected with case managers to figure out their situations, go over budgeting, housing needs, and more, giving them the resources to become self-sufficient.
"We want to help in any capacity that we can. Nothing's too small. Our case management team and my staff are here. You know, our doors are open," Harvey said.
Harvey says sometimes the bigger systems are harder to navigate, like CMU (Case Management Unit), and may be a little overwhelming for a new client.
"It's our hope that they can come to this smaller location to be able to start the process and have support navigate in the services," Harvey said.
Shalom House is located at 1508 Market Street, Harrisburg, PA 17104. The hours for the new drop-in center are 3 to 7 p.m. on Mondays and 12 to 4 p.m. on Wednesdays.
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