DENVER - Over seven years, the Family and Senior Homeless initiative has helped 1,000 families get off the streets and into a home in the Denver area.
It's an effort by the Denver Rescue Mission and faith communities across the metro area to give the first month's rent, deposit and counseling to families who are getting back on their feet.
Eighty-seven percent of the families who got the hand up are still in housing a year later.
One woman who went through the program says it was the difference between living night to night, and building a future.
"Having that little bit of help got me into my own apartment for me and my children. It got me out of a bad area. It got me to change my whole life and to go to college and to go to school, to want to have something better for myself," Kim Banks, a recipient of homeless housing, said.
Sixty-two percent of the homeless population in Denver are families, according to the Denver Rescue Mission.
The Family and Senior Homeless Initiative has given $1 million since 2005.
(Copyright 2012 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)