In today's tight housing market, it has become increasingly difficult for many residents to afford a home, whether they rent or buy. Many in our community struggle daily to meet their payments or to find housing they can afford, while others simply have no home. We are blessed in Kailua to have a community network dedicated to helping homeless families find and keep a home: Family Promise of Hawai'i.

Family Promise is a community-based, interfaith, non-profit organization that utilizes existing resources to help homeless families reach sustainable independence. Based on the participation of a network of congregations (including Christian, Buddhist, Jewish, Sufi and Unitarian) who serve as host and support partners, the families receive a safe and welcoming place to sleep, healthy meals, and the stability and professional assistance to get back on their feet. Each congregation hosts the families for one week, up to four times per year. During the day, the families can use a Family Center that is equipped with laundry, kitchen, showers, a living room and play area, as well as computers and support staff to assist in job and house searches, skills training and other services. A 15-passenger van provides transportation to and from the day center each day.

Family Promise assists families of at least one parent and one child. They are selected through a careful screening process ensuring that they are best served by this program. Families come to the program primarily through referrals from other institutions and its volunteers.

The average length of stay for families in the program is three months. Of the 22 families (consisting of more than 80 adults and children) served by Family Promise of Hawai'i thus far, 16 families have been placed in housing and two more families are expected to be in homes of their own by early this month. That's an incredible success rate with a significant impact on families.

Kailua is the proud home of Hawai'i's first Family Promise network, which opened in March 2006, thanks to the efforts of the four original board members who formed the group in November 2004. This network consists of 25 congregations on the Windward side and a Family Center in Kailua. A Honolulu network is scheduled to open July 15, with 22 congregations participating and a temporary Honolulu Family Center hosted by Catholic Charities.

Family Promise is supported by 18 board members, 47 participating congregations, two full-time staff (Executive Director Kent Anderson and Program Manager Christy MacPherson), two part-time van drivers, more than 1,000 volunteers and monetary donations from individuals and various organizations, such as the Castle Foundation and the Office of Hawaiian Affairs.

The organization views its volunteer base as the greatest contributor to the program's success and uniqueness. From the van drivers who become hanai family to the host congregations who create a home-like atmosphere, Anderson credits these volunteers with creating a support mechanism that provides dignity and hope and even maintains the family unit and relationships. In turn, the families who participate in the program affect the volunteers by putting a human face on the issue of homelessness, touching lives, and generating even more compassion and willingness to help.

I am very proud of, and thankful for, my fellow residents who take an active role in supporting this wonderful program. Participation from within my constituency includes 10 congregations, students from Kalaheo High School and numerous individual volunteers. Other examples of community initiatives sparked by Family Promise include volunteers renting housing to program families, the formation of a Kailua High School student club to address homelessness and the May 14 renovation of the Ho'okipa state housing project in Kahalu'u by Kailua High's junior class, Family Promise and Ohana Hou.

Because Family Promise relies on community participation to operate, the more help they have, the more families they can help. Their greatest needs are more participating congregations, cash donations, long-term housing resources and volunteers.

While the short-term goal of Family Promise is to have a widespread group of networks to serve every community, its ultimate goal is to make the organization obsolete by ending homelessness. Community participation is the key to achieving this aim, and Kailua should be proud of its involvement.

Rep. Cynthia Thielen is a Republican representing District 50 (Kailua, Mokapu). She wrote this commentary for The Advertiser.