Freedom House helps the homeless sustain, attain and maintain the skills and resources they need to lead them toward change and a better life.

Sustain
We help the homeless sustain by providing the basic necessities to survive until they are prepared to make a change in their lives. The Conrad Center serves breakfast and dinner five days a week throughout the year to the homeless and working poor. Some guests dine at the center to help make ends meet, others because an addiction to drugs or alcohol is temporarily keeping them from self-sufficiency, or, after years of neglect, they have become accustomed to the lifestyle of being on the streets.

Attain
When an individual is prepared to make a change in his or her life, Freedom House is ready to provide stable housing and support. Oftentimes, our clients have been on the streets for so long that they have forgotten the basic skills needed for day-to-day living. The Community Shelter is a transitional facility that allows people to live in a supportive environment and attain the special skills and tools they need to live independently. Clients attend workshops on topics such as money management, résumé writing, interviewing skills, and computer training. A case manager works individually with residents on how to set goals and accomplish the positive changes they have committed to attain.

Maintain
After clients have demonstrated the necessary changes in their behavior and life patterns that lead to self-sufficiency, Freedom House helps ensure that they can maintain their newly acquired skills. Sean's Place is a home which serves as an 18-month transitional program focused on helping residents who no longer need the day-to-day guidance of a case manager, yet still require a stable and supportive environment to maintain their recoveries. While at Sean's Place, clients are required to pay rent, strengthen their personal finances (including reducing any outstanding debt), and begin the search for a permanent housing solution. Even after residents make this final transition, Sean's Place offers aftercare to help new graduates maintain their successes.

In 1983 a group of concerned citizens from downtown Richmond recognized a need and launched an initiative to provide a daily meal to the homeless and urban poor in the community.

The number of people who needed meals grew until Freedom House could no longer accommodate all the hungry people at its original location on 402 W. Grace Street. The Evening Meal program, as it was called originally, relocated and expanded to the Richmond Street Center on the corner of Canal and Belvidere streets.

In time, Freedom House became a nonprofit organization (501-C-3) and in 1992, opened Sean's Place, an advanced transitional housing program for adults located at 713 North First Street . The Community Shelter, opened as an emergency shelter for 50 men and women in 1987, and then developed into a transitional housing program in 1999.

Despite the phenomenal growth and changes in our programs and facilities, our focus has remained steady: embrace those in crisis and welcome them into a stable and supportive environment so that self-sufficiency and independence may be achieved.