The ripple effects of the mortgage crisis and a weakened economy extend well into the ranks of the poor. And Les Jones expects that his nonprofit agency will feel the effects this year.

Jones, executive director of Family HomeStead, said he got a call recently from a woman seeking help because she was facing foreclosure.

"It's unusual for us to house people because they lost a home they owned. Maybe that's anecdotal, but maybe we're going to see more of that," he said.

Serving homeless families for three decades, Family HomeStead has applied for Season to Share funding.

Family Homestead is led by Jones and a group of staff and volunteers committed to helping the homeless transition into society.

How did the agency start and how did you get involved?

It started 30 years ago as a coalition of service providers working with homeless families.

How will the mortgage crisis affect what you do in the coming year?

That's a tough call. My sense is the subprime mortgage meltdown will lead to a much broader economic slowdown, which will severely impact low-income families. Because, when the economy gets a cold, poor people get pneumonia.

How are you prepared for that scenario?

We are not prepared to significantly increase the availability of emergency transitional housing we have.

Our long-term growth is 5 percent a year in terms of the number of days of housing we provide.

At the moment, our prospects of adding a lot of emergency or transitional housing aren't good. We don't have the resources to do that.

We're the anti-business model. For each additional unit of housing, we add more to our deficit because we don't charge people for housing. We're not collecting rent.

Why did you personally get involved in this area of need?

This is just what I do. My father was always involved in community service and he was a scout leader and president of the Kiwanis and taught Sunday school. I suppose that has an impact.

I was always interested in social justice issues and haven't been very comfortable with the distributional effects of the way our economy is organized and what it does to kids.

What do you see as your goal when the people who need your help come through the door?

We have a little different take on how we operate. We see the families who come in here and, if their lives were a book, we see them in maybe a small portion of one chapter of that book and we are minor players in that chapter.

They have a whole history and series of relationships with family and the community and loved ones and other organizations.

They come to us and, if we can in a short period of time working with them relieve their immediate crisis - which is what homelessness is - and help them re-establish themselves at a level of functioning that is good for them, then we have helped them do what they would've done anyhow.

Family HomeStead

* Mission: To house homeless families and end homelessness for families in our program in the Denver area.

* Founded: 1978

* Families served: 235

* Staff: Seven full time

* Volunteers: 500

* Budget: $700,000

* Web site: familyhome stead.org

How to donate

* Post-News Season To Share, a fund of the McCormick Tribune Foundation, gave more than $1.79 million to 62 agencies serving children, as well as people who are hungry, homeless or in need of medical care last year. Donations are matched at 50 cents for each dollar, and 100 percent of all donations go directly to local charitable agencies. To make a donation, see the coupon on NEWS 24 of today's paper, call 1-888-683-4483 or visit seasonto share.com.