Southwick House

Goal: $6,000.00

Specific Need

Your gift to Southwick House can provide housing and supportive services to women and families experiencing homelessness. The lack of transitional housing options for women and families in our area is a well-known gap in services in our community. While options are available for individuals who meet specific criteria, there are no low barrier transitional housing options for families and women in our community. Southwick House will provide transitional housing and supportive services to individuals and families in experiencing homelessness in our communities, giving them a hand up and a safe place to get back on their feet. Your gift to Southwick House can provide housing and supportive services to women and families experiencing homelessness. The lack of transitional housing options for women and families in our area is a well-known gap in services in our community. While options are available for individuals who meet specific criteria, there are no low barrier transitional housing options for families and women in our community. Southwick House will provide transitional housing and supportive services to individuals and families in experiencing homelessness in our communities, giving them a hand up and a safe place to get back on their feet.

Mission

Our mission is to empower individuals and families to develop skills to achieve and maintain independence through transitional housing and supportive services.

Profile

Southwick House is a 9,000 sq ft transitional housing facility being built in Emporia, Kansas to provide low barrier transitional housing and supportive services to individuals and families. Construction is expected to be completed by the end of 2026, and Southwick House plans to open its doors at the beginning of 2027. 

For 100 years, Plumb Place served the housing needs of single women in Emporia and surrounding communities. Following the closure of Plumb Place, dedicated community members worked to re-establish transitional housing in our area, and Southwick House is the result of those efforts. In 2023, Southwick House was established with an expanded mission that had been envisioned for our region's current needs, and we embarked on a capital campaign to build a new facility for the next 100 years of service to our most vulnerable populations. That facility is currently under construction, and we expect to begin open our doors in the first part of 2027. 

While excellent homeless shelter options are available, they are limited by necessary funding restrictions related the populations that serve such as youth or individuals who have experienced domestic or sexual violence, or limited by mission priorities such as supports during pregnancy, for addiction treatment, or faith-based subscription. The negative effects of no low-barrier housing available are many. For example, research tells us that the longer children are in unstable housing situations, the more likely they are to experiment with drugs/alcohol and related risky behaviors. Additionally, housing is a healthcare concern. Research from the National Institute of Health indicates, "Housing is a major pathway through which health disparities emerge and are sustained over time."

Transitional housing is for the truly invisible population of housing insecure. These are individuals and families, often single parents who live below the poverty line, paycheck to paycheck, and have experienced one triggering event which causes housing loss.  Like you and I, our first thought when facing a home loss crisis is not to buy a tent and live on the street. We call on our friends, our relatives, and our community social services for help. Southwick House provides this help by stabilizing the family with safe housing.

Our transitional model is set at 280 days of sliding scale fee housing accompanied by a set of planning options for the resident. Planning modules include fiscal, mental, and physical health, transportation, education, employment, and vital document planning.