Recent official counts now show more than 1.5 million people are living on U.S. streets or in shelters. Some analysts place the number of homeless Americans at 3.5 million, with 1.4 million being chil-dren.

The Emergency Shelter Project (ESP), located at 2700 Eighth Avenue, Altoona offers area men, women and children shelter services. Homelessness is not just an issue in large cities, it affects all communities, large and small.

Local statistics for the past year for Blair County:

“Each month we turn away almost 70% of the people who call ESP looking for shelter services,” stat-ed Bryan Lytle, shelter supervisor. “The absolute hardest part of my job is having to turn away twice as many individuals and families than we are able to serve.”

While we are fortunate to be able to provide shelter services to those in our community, the num-bers indicate that we need to do more. Our task is to ensure all men, women and children are not turned away due to lack of space at ESP.

Ways to keep the Emergency Shelter Project open by
your generous donation, click here.

Anyone that becomes homeless does not have to stay that way.

All services are strictly confidential as outlined in the agency’s Confidentiality Policy.  As required by this policy, Family Services Incorporated must report all cases of suspected child abuse to Childline, the 24-hour Department of Public Welfare hotline.