Home is something most of us rarely think about until we are at risk of losing it.
It is where we return after a long day. Where children sleep. Where meals are shared and routines take shape. It is the place that still feels familiar when everything outside seems uncertain.
Now imagine it disappearing.
“When people are in trouble, the first place we want to go is home,” says Trace Rudolph, chaplain at Halifax Urban Ministries. “Now imagine a situation where that’s ripped out from under you.”
For families facing homelessness, the loss is about far more than an address. It can mean losing security, routine, relationships and the place where life normally resets itself.
“Home is where we go when we’re overwhelmed, when we’re anxious, when we’re depressed,” Rudolph says. “And so, when that’s taken away from you, it is psychologically tormenting.”
That understanding is at the heart of Halifax Urban Ministries, which has spent 45 years helping people experiencing homelessness, housing instability and food insecurity throughout Volusia and Flagler counties.
Its work is extensive—emergency and transitional housing, hot meals, groceries, transportation, financial assistance and case management among it—but the larger purpose is remarkably simple.
Help someone regain enough stability to begin again.
Closer Than We Think
It can be comforting to imagine homelessness as something distant, affecting people whose lives bear little resemblance to our own.
Rudolph challenges that assumption.
“One missed paycheck, one doctor’s visit,” he says. “They are you, quite literally. They are you.”
The people seeking help from HUM include families with children, veterans, young adults and people who are working but struggling to keep pace with the cost of living.
Their circumstances vary because homelessness rarely has a single cause.
Natural disasters can wipe out possessions and savings. Housing costs can outpace income. Seasonal employment can disappear. An unexpected expense can destabilize a household already operating without much margin.
Homelessness can also carry a burden that is harder to measure. Rudolph sees people arrive not only without stable housing, but exhausted by the uncertainty that comes with it. Losing a home can disrupt work, school, transportation and relationships all at once. Each problem can make the others harder to solve.
That is why HUM's approach extends beyond meeting the immediate need. A meal can create breathing room. Transportation can help someone get to work or an appointment. Case management can help turn a collection of urgent problems into a plan. Temporary shelter can provide the stability needed to begin carrying that plan out.
The circumstances may be complicated, but Rudolph does not believe they are hopeless. He describes homelessness and food insecurity as “solvable issues.” The challenge is recognizing that solutions often require more than one kind of help—and enough time for someone to regain their footing.
Sometimes preventing homelessness can be as straightforward as helping with groceries.
HUM's Feed-a-Family program distributes food through locations in Daytona Beach, Ormond Beach, Port Orange and New Smyrna Beach. In 2025, the organization distributed 30,256 bags of food totaling more than 484 tons. Financial assistance helped another 261 households with rent and utilities.
A bag of groceries may appear to address hunger. But if receiving food allows a family to redirect limited income toward rent or electricity, it can also help preserve a home.
That is the value of intervening before a difficult month becomes a crisis.
A Timeout, Not an Ending
For families who have already lost housing, HUM operates Hope Place, providing emergency housing for families with children for up to 90 days along with meals, childcare, tutoring and case management.
Rudolph describes those 90 days using a football analogy.
“I think of it like a timeout,” he says. “You get off the field, you get stable, you get a game plan, and then you get back on the field.”
In 2025, Hope Place supported 124 families, with 71% securing permanent housing. The program provided 25,289 nights of safety for families with children. HUM also served 27 unaccompanied young adults, with 70% moving into permanent housing.
Case managers help families tackle the practical elements of rebuilding: employment, finances, transportation, housing and whatever barriers stand between instability and independence.
Rudolph works on another part of the equation.
“My role is to tend to souls,” he says.
Sometimes that means prayer. Sometimes it means helping someone process grief, anger or fear. Other times it means sitting down and listening.
“Folks just want to be seen,” Rudolph says. “So I see them.”
That simple statement may explain as much about HUM's role in the community as any statistic.
Because help isn't always about fixing something for someone.
Sometimes it begins by recognizing them.
When Children Lose Home
Perhaps nowhere is the importance of stability more apparent than among the children who arrive at Hope Place.
Children may not understand every circumstance that caused their family to lose housing, but they understand when their world changes.
They notice when their bedroom disappears. They notice a different routine, unfamiliar surroundings and the stress carried by the adults around them.
“Honestly, our care is definitely geared towards the children,” Rudolph says. “And that’s who our heart bleeds for the most.”
Yet what strikes him is their resilience.
“They’re so resilient,” he says. “They’re so bright. They’re smiling.”
He watches children hug case managers and bring an unexpected warmth into a place created because families are experiencing crisis.
“They just spread love,” he says.
HUM creates opportunities for those children to experience something homelessness can easily interrupt: childhood.
Movie nights, Bible studies and activities such as vision boards may sound small compared with finding permanent housing, but normal moments have value when normal life has been disrupted.
The goal isn't merely to shelter a family for 90 days.
It is to help restore the belief that what happens next can be different from what is happening now.
Dignity at the Table
That same philosophy extends to one of HUM's most visible services.
Bridge of Hope provides daily hot meals to people experiencing food insecurity and homelessness in Daytona Beach. In 2025, HUM reports serving more than 336,825 hot meals, distributing more than 10,251 essential items and providing more than 1,245 bus passes.
President and CEO Roy Young wants the experience to be about more than handing someone food.
HUM is working toward more permanent spaces where people can sit at tables, eat in chairs and share a meal in an environment that feels less transactional and more like community.
That distinction matters.
A meal addresses hunger.
How it is served can address dignity.
It reflects a recurring theme throughout HUM's programs: circumstances may change what someone needs, but they do not change what that person is worth.
Different Needs, Different Answers
The same principle applies to veterans experiencing homelessness.
Through Barracks of Hope, HUM provides transitional housing, meals, case management and support to veterans working toward permanent stability. In 2025, the program served 71 veterans, with 86% of those tracked transitioning into permanent housing.
Other programs address other barriers. Cars Bring Hope provides transportation. Pathways to Housing assists with housing. The Derbyshire Community Garden of Hope provides fresh produce.
Taken together, they reflect something HUM has learned through decades of service: complex problems rarely have one solution.
Sometimes someone needs a meal.
Sometimes rent assistance.
Sometimes transportation.
Sometimes a safe bed.
And sometimes another person willing to listen.
A Community That Shows Up
Professional staff cannot do all of that alone.
More than 400 volunteers help HUM prepare and serve meals, organize donations, distribute groceries and support guests.
“We’re people doing God’s work,” Young says. “We love being servant leaders, and we love each other.”
There is another word Young uses to describe what exists inside the organization, despite the difficult circumstances surrounding much of its work.
Joy.
“There is a lot of joy,” he says.
Perhaps that shouldn't be surprising.
Hope isn't pretending hardship doesn't exist. It is believing hardship doesn't have to become the end of someone's story.
That belief becomes tangible when a volunteer serves a meal, someone donates groceries, a case manager helps locate housing or a community member chooses to spend time with someone who has been overlooked.
Rudolph believes that last contribution can be especially powerful.
“Most valuable is befriending and companioning people through their troubles,” he says.
Money matters. Food matters. Housing matters.
But people matter, too.
For someone whose circumstances have severed relationships with family and friends, human connection can be part of rebuilding.
Forty-Five Years of Hope
Halifax Urban Ministries began in 1981 when local faith communities came together to respond to economic hardship. What began with feeding people in local parks has grown into an organization addressing both homelessness prevention and intervention.
That history also gives HUM a long view of what community support can accomplish. The organization did not grow from one program designed to solve every problem. It developed different responses as different needs became visible.
As HUM marks its 45th year, that work continues to evolve. The organization is looking toward additional shelter capacity, continued support for veterans and more permanent options for serving hot meals during the day. Growth, however, is not simply about serving larger numbers. It is about creating more opportunities for people to move from immediate crisis toward lasting stability.
For the community, those plans are also a reminder that HUM's work belongs to more than the people who walk through its doors. Volunteers, donors, faith communities and local partners have helped sustain the organization for decades. Every meal served, grocery bag distributed and family housed represents a network of people choosing to respond when a neighbor needs help.
Forty-five years later, the needs have changed and the programs have expanded, but HUM's underlying belief remains uncomplicated:
“People matter to God.”
For Rudolph, those words shape both how he sees people arriving at HUM and how he hopes they eventually see themselves.
He wants someone leaving Hope Place to regain “confidence in themselves.”
To remember that a difficult season does not erase their worth.
That idea becomes especially meaningful during a season when many of us pause to consider what we are thankful for.
Gratitude naturally draws our attention toward what we have: a home, a meal, family around a table, transportation when we need it and people we can call when life becomes difficult.
At Halifax Urban Ministries, those familiar things can become something more.
They can become ways to serve.
A donation can help provide housing or food. A volunteer can offer practical assistance. A bag of groceries can help a family keep the electricity on. A conversation can remind someone who feels invisible that another person sees them.
And sometimes, the first step toward rebuilding a life isn't having every problem solved.
It is having somewhere safe to stop.
Someone willing to listen.
And a place to begin again.
“Folks just want to be seen. So I see them.”
HOW YOU CAN HELP
Halifax Urban Ministries relies on community support to provide meals, shelter, groceries, transportation and housing assistance to local families, veterans and individuals facing homelessness, food insecurity and unexpected financial hardship.
VOLUNTEER: Help prepare and serve meals, organize donations, distribute groceries or support HUM programs.
DONATE FOOD: Support Feed-a-Family and daily meal programs with needed food items.
DONATE CLOTHING & HOUSEHOLD ITEMS: New or gently used essentials can be distributed directly to people in need.
GIVE FINANCIALLY: Financial gifts help HUM provide housing assistance, meals, case management, transportation and other critical services.
GIVE YOUR TIME: Beyond volunteering, consider becoming a consistent source of encouragement. A conversation, a meal shared together or simply listening can help someone feel seen.
LEARN MORE: Visit Halifax Urban Ministries online to learn about volunteer opportunities, current needs, upcoming volunteer opportunities and ways to make a meaningful difference in the community.