United Ministries: Jessica’s Story

Reunited

Jessica wanted her family back. With the help of United Ministries and a connected community of support, she now has her family and a home of her own.

Jessica, a single mother of four children, is no stranger to challenges.  Her first came in 2019 when she entered the Serenity Place residential rehabilitation program to get help for a substance use disorder.  At the time, her youngest daughter was placed in foster care, but with hard work, they were reunited and lived together at Serenity Village until March 2020.

Jessica began working, first on a temporary basis, but because of her performance was officially hired by North American Rescue Medical Depot.  With custody of two of her four children, she moved out of Serenity Village with a plan to move into United Ministries emergency shelter for families (now called United Ministries Housing).  However, that was put on hold due to the outbreak of COVID-19. As United Ministries worked to shift their emergency shelter model, Jessica and her children lived temporarily with her mother in a two-bedroom, one-bath home.

In June 2020, Jessica and her children were welcomed into the United Ministries Housing program. United Ministries also connected Jessica to an attorney from Root and Rebound to help her regain custody of her remaining children. United Ministries’ Financial coach offered counseling around budgeting, credit, and asset attainment.

Today Jessica still works at the North American Rescue Medical Depot and has been awarded several raises during her time there. While an increase in income is typically seen as a positive, for many Americans like Jessica it creates a benefits cliff - when a small increase in earnings means a family no longer can receive a public benefit that was helping them to feed their families, afford medical care, access quality child care, or otherwise balance their budget.  For Jessica,  the last raise she was awarded at work put her just barely over the income limit for Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), and she and her children lost a substantial amount of food stamps per month.   The challenges of overcoming the benefits cliff could result in someone spiraling back into homelessness without the support of organizations like United Ministries who assist with housing, employment, and more to come alongside families like Jessica’s.

Jessica and her family were able to move into interim housing provided through a partnership with Homes of Hope. She also completed United Ministries Matched Savings Program and was approved by Habitat for Humanity of Greenville County for the process of home ownership.

Jessica has been reunited with all four of her children. She continues to live in the United Ministries’ interim housing through Homes of Hope until her Habitat for Humanity home is completed. Learn about the connection between homeownership and health from a survey of Habitat home owners.

United Ministries serves and empowers those on the transformative journey to self-sufficiency. Their vision is a community working together to ensure that everyone has the opportunity to thrive in Greenville.

To learn more about United Ministries, visit https://united-ministries.org/