Tabor Community Services: Supportive Housing: Transitional Living Center: Program Overview

What is TLC?

Transitional Living Center (TLC) provides housing and support to those experiencing homelessness. The 51-room facility is located at 105 East King Street in Downtown Lancaster. TLC is fully operational and staffed 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. The focus of the TLC program is to end the cycle of homelessness and each household must be committed to the goal of finding permanent housing upon enrollment into the TLC program.

34 rooms in the facility are set aside for the general population... singles, couples, families, senior citizens, infants, teenagers... While our general population of residents is made of adults and children from all walks of life, TLC also offers additional specialized programs within the building. In collaboration with Veterans Affairs, the Veterans' Victory House has been established, allowing TLC to provide 17 rooms for veterans who are experiencing homelessness.

TLC's residents

TLC residents face barriers that hinder them from finding permanent housing. Residents may be striving to reduce their personal debts, stabilize their mental and/or physical health, maintain recovery from drug and/or alcohol abuse, or be fleeing from domestic violence. Many are forced to work more than one full-time job or attend additional job training to increase their income in order to transition into affordable and permanent housing. TLC recognizes that these residents are forced to make difficult decisions and TLC is there to help.

Each household is assigned a caseworker that works one-on-one with the residents to develop a plan for permanent housing. Once a resident enters the program, budgeting and savings are immediate. Residents become informed on topics such as Landlord Rights and Responsibilities, Budgeting and other related items to become successful in their permanent housing through our Life Skills classes. Over 70% of our residents successfully get to permanent housing in less than 4 months with the qualities landlords desire most, paying your rent on time, keeping the property in good order and being a good neighbor.

History

In May 2004, Transitional Living Center (formerly Harb-Adult) merged with Tabor. Located in the former King Douglas Hotel on East King Street in Lancaster City, Harb-Adult was created in 1985, offering fifty-four rooms to low income families while working with Tabor in transitional housing counseling. In 2003 Millersville University students majoring in speech communications, served as public relations consultants and initiated a contest to find a new name for Harb-Adult. A resident of Harb-Adult, Tavito Preston, won the contest with his idea to call it: TLC: Transitional Living Center saying "TLC (also an acronym for Tender Loving Care) reminded me of the warm atmosphere and solid structure that gave me back control of my life."¹

¹Paragraph quoted from Jean-Paul Benowitz, "Make Yourself At Home: Tabor Community Services: Housing and Financial Counseling: Forty Years of Rebuilding Lives and Community, 1968-2008," 2008.

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