Sometimes miracles do happen. That’s what one of our Participants said after working with Leading Families Home to reunite her family and find permanent housing.

Our Participant, Jen, and her husband, Lee, were referred to Leading Families Home from Family House, an emergency shelter in Toledo. The couple was referred to participate in our Rapid Re-housing Program.

Jen and Lee become homeless after being evicted by their landlord. The eviction was due to the couple losing their jobs during COVID. Even though their circumstances were out of their control – and even though the judge in their case pleaded with the landlord to not evict them – the landlord evicted them anyway.

Once Jen and Lee were referred to Leading Families Home, they were notified of outstanding warrants. Lee is serving 60 days to resolve his warrant, but his probation officer is hopeful that Lee will be released earlier.

Jen’s warrant was a surprise to her; she didn’t know about it until it was brought to her attention. Her warrant was over 10 years old, when she was living in another state. It was for a theft charge as she was caught stealing a car seat in order to bring her son home from the hospital.

Thankfully, Jen was able to clear her warrant.

In the meantime, however, Jen and Lee’s children had no home, and CPS was called. The children were removed from Jen and Lee’s care and placed in the care of the state.

The children were devastated to be taken from their parents, and the event completely traumatized them. One of the children is only 11 years old, is terrified of the dark, and still plays with dolls. Being away from her mother and father has created a stressful, confusing situation for her, one we hope will be resolved quickly.

Jen’s plan is to regain custody of her children as soon as possible, and her court date is set for later in December.

Jen’s case was discussed last week via Zoom with staff from Leading Families Home, Family House, and CPS in attendance. The CPS caseworker is very optimistic that Jen will regain custody of her children soon. Jen is to receive mental health services as part of her reunification process to regain custody, something she planned to do already when she arrived at Leading Families Home.

Jen currently enjoys unsupervised visits with her kids and is going to be able to spend Thanksgiving break with them. For Jen, this is everything. She was absolutely destroyed when she lost her children, as they are her entire world.

There is a ray of hope, though. Today, when her Leading Families Home caseworker spoke to her on the phone, Jen said that she had a new sense of hope due to the Zoom meeting and office visit. She said, “It renews my belief in God, my belief that miracles do happen, and my sense that God is talking to me now to follow His path.”

Jen plans to sign a lease for housing this week. Last weekend, Jen visited Mosaic Church and picked out furniture and a washer and drier for her new home. As she does not have any place for the furniture, her future landlord has offered to let her store her belongings in one of his shed’s on his property prior to her lease signing.

At Leading Families Home, our mission is to help families, like Jen and Lee’s, to transition from homelessness to permanent housing. The path to permanent housing isn’t always easy, but we are able to offer hope, support, and comfort to those in need.

** Names have been changed and stock images are used to protect our Participants’ identities.**

For our current and future Participants, the need for comprehensive services continues to grow. To meet that need, we have big plans. And big plans call for big dollars. We need your help. Will you partner with us to meet the needs of our community? You can give by PayPal , or by mailing a check to Leading Families Home, 2910 W. Central Avenue, Toledo, Ohio 43606.

Thank you for always being faithful partners in our mission — helping families transition from homelessness to permanent housing. Together we’ve got this.

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Leading Families Home is based in Toledo, Ohio. We are dedicated to fighting homelessness in our community – and we’d love your help! Please consider supporting our organization in one of the following ways:

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Every year we have a Match Campaign – an exciting way for you to double your impact. During this campaign, our match partners will match your monetary donation to Leading Families Home.

Match partners also include corporate sponsors who match their employees’ donations. If you’d like to participate, find out if your employer matches employee donations to 501(c)(3) organizations and contact us .

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