2021 Virtual Highmark Walk

This year's Virtual Highmark Walk is less than two weeks away! Join one of our 19 walk teams and walk with us to help prevent and end homelessness for families with children! Help us register 100+ walkers and reach our goal of raising $15,000 to assist families secure permanent housing.

You can click on any of the teams below to join them!

• Agilent

• Aldersgate Partners

• Bethel AME Ministerial Staff

• Ebenezer Holy Walkamolies

• Flawless

• Foster Family & Friends

• FP Board Team

• Fun Friedlands

• Hockessin Friends Meeting

• Homelessness Destroyers

• Jericho Walkers 2021

• Kingswood UMC

• Priceless Caring Walkers

• Resurrection Steppers

• Simpson UMC

• St. Barnabas Episcopal Church

• St. Mark Lutheran's Church

• Team Hog Swamp - Heritage Presbyterian Church

• Walk the Walk

Register today and walk with us anytime June 12th! Anytime on June 12th you choose how and when you walk (treadmill, park or trail, or around the neighborhood) – it’s your choice! You also pick the time of when you start and stop! You can register friends, family, coworkers, etc.

On June 12th, send a picture of yourself and your walk team to tyler@familypromisede.org.

Click here to register!

Joselyn's Journey Home

Despite all the challenges of 2020 and 2021, the beginning of this year was an exciting time for Joselyn. 2021 represented a new beginning. Living in Massachusetts, Joselyn had been saving up what she could in 2020 despite the challenges posed by the pandemic. Joselyn was saving up, as she was planning a move to Delaware to be with her long distance fiancé. The two had been in a long distance relationship for some time and wanted to truly begin their lives together as a married couple in Delaware.

Joselyn and her two children, Jaiden and Alani moved in with Joselyn’s fiancé early this year. Everything was perfect. Joselyn and her children adored her fiancé – he was their security blanket in this new and unfamiliar State. Almost as soon as she came to Delaware Joselyn landed a job at the Neighborhood House as a Remote Learning Teacher. Joselyn and her children felt safe, secure and they were the happiest they have ever been. Joselyn and her fiancé were even planning to purchase a home together in a few months when her fiancé’s lease expired.

Joselyn’s fiancé unexpectedly passed away this April. They were planning on purchasing a home together this summer, and their wedding was scheduled for this December. Joselyn’s life came crashing down. The man she had loved for so long, the man that was going to be the father of children, the man of her dreams was gone. All her plans and hopes for the future vanished with him.

Before she even had time to adequately grieve and process what had happened, her fiancé’s family forced her out of the apartment she shared with her fiancé and refused to allow her to retrieve her belongings. Joselyn was never added to the lease as they planned to purchase a home in a few months.

This was supposed to be the happiest time of Joselyn’s life – instead, she was left feeling broken. Instead of living her dreams with her fiancé, Joselyn found herself homeless, struggling to maintain her job and to find shelter for herself and her children.

“I was broken. Somedays I just couldn’t see the light at the end of the tunnel, everything seemed lost. When I reached out for help, everyone was always telling me no, there was nothing they could do. After he passed away life was almost worth not living, but I knew I had to do right by my kids”.

When everything seemed lost, Joselyn found Family Promise. “Family Promise to me, represented a new beginning for myself and my family. They helped me find myself when I was lost – I’m not sure what I would have done without Family Promise. I didn’t have hope, I was at the lowest point in my life, I was scared, but Family Promise helped me. They treated me like family and changed my life”

“Georgette (Joselyn’s FP Case Manager) was with me every step of the way. She always encouraged me to never give up. Georgette would always tell me we’re in this together, that I’m not alone, and that as long as we keep trying, we’ll find something. We did. In less than a month Georgette helped me find and move into a three bedroom townhouse. Family Promise isn’t just someone doing their job, Family Promise is about compassion, and people who go above and beyond to help.”

2020 - 35% Increase in Homelessness

"Delaware sees a 35% increase in homelessness, especially for families with the lowest incomes.

On behalf of the Delaware Continuum of Care, Housing Alliance Delaware conducted the 2021 Point in Time (PIT) Count on January 27, 2021. On that night, 1,579 people were experiencing homelessness in Delaware. This is a 35% increase from the 2020 PIT census of 1,165 people.

The staggering 35% increase in homelessness in Delaware is indicative of the affordable housing crisis facing our state. Housing remains out of reach for thousands of Delawareans, forcing far too many to rely on temporary shelter for far too long.

Delaware has a shortage of 20,000 affordable housing units for the lowest income households (those with incomes less than 30% Area Median Income). Nationally, Delaware has the 17th highest housing wage in the country – meaning that the household income needed to afford a market rate rental unit is the 17th highest in the nation.

The COVID-19 crisis has shed a bright light on the housing and homeless crises facing our state. Solving these problems requires significant and strategic investments in both the short term crisis, as well as the long term solution - which is to ensure that everyone in Delaware has access to housing."

If you're interested in reading the entire press release from Housing Alliance Delaware, please click the "read more" button below.

Click here to read the full press release.