Phoenix (STN) – The final episode of ‘It Happens at STN’ in 2025 opened with a hard truth that cut through the holiday atmosphere: more than 250 families were on UMOM’s shelter wait list, living in survival mode while moving between cars, motels, and couches as they waited for a safe place to land.
CEO Emeritus Jackson Fonder did not sugarcoat what that wait really meant.
“By the time they get to us, they’ve burned through all the favors they had with family and friends and gone through any savings they may have had,” he said. Families arrive exhausted, traumatized, and financially depleted.
What stood out just as clearly, however, was not only the crisis itself, but UMOM’s firm belief that it did not have to be permanent.
Newly named CEO Monique Lopez put language to what many families experience but rarely show.
“Families are doing everything they can to be less visible,” she said. “Being in cars, in parking lots, trying to stay unseen. It’s all about holding the family together.”
WATCH: Why UMOM believes family homelessness is solvable
Despite the urgency, both leaders emphasized that family homelessness is solvable. Not because it is simple, but because the path forward is known.
“We don’t lack ideas,” Fonder said. “We lack capacity—shelter, housing, and income. If you get those right, families don’t fall back.” For him, the challenge was not awareness, but sustained commitment to building systems that help families stabilize.
Lopez outlined the structure behind UMOM’s success. “Jobs plus housing works,” she said, explaining that from day one, case managers focused on removing barriers and building individualized housing plans for every family who arrived.
The results were concrete. “Eighty-four percent of our families exited to permanent housing in under 90 days,” Lopez said. A number that far surpasses the national average.
