APEX - Every day, between 5 and 6 p.m., two vans roll into a parking lot off Raleigh's Western Boulevard and load up 10 families and their backpacks. They then drive out across Wake County, taking the passengers to churches where they will bunk overnight.

For these families, the churches are literally home -- the place where they eat, play and sleep until the vans return the next morning.

Through a program called the Wake Interfaith Hospitality Network, these homeless families stay in churches overnight while searching for jobs and housing during the day.

"The biggest asset the program takes advantage of is the roof," said Cale Halbleib, volunteer coordinator for Apex United Methodist Church, where 17 adults and children stayed last week. "The structure -- the roof -- is here. All we're providing are the volunteers to make it work."

Many people think of churches as rarefied holy places. The network sees them as a bricks-and-mortar component in the fight to end homelessness. For 15 years, the network has helped struggling families find temporary stability in the loving arms of local congregations.

The idea started in 1986 when a New York City marketing executive decided that handing out sandwiches wasn't enough. Karen Olson turned to religious congregations to set up the first Interfaith Hospitality Network in Union County, N.J. Today, there are 137 affiliates in 39 states.

While homeless shelters typically serve individual men and women, the network serves families with children -- mostly single mothers but occasionally fathers or couples and their children.

A comfortable place

The families stay in Sunday school classrooms on cots provided by the network. Each Sunday they move to a new church.

"It's not home," Halbleib said, "but it's a comfortable place to be in during the week."

Families admitted to the program usually stay between eight and 12 weeks, though one family stayed six months. From 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. they meet with caseworkers and try to line up jobs and housing from the network's home base on Raleigh's Method Road. The network has a computer lab and telephone lines so clients can find work online and draw up résumés.

The children go to school on school buses that stop at the network offices. A nursery is available for babies. By 5 p.m. the children assemble in the lounge, ready with their backpacks for the evening's trip to the churches.

The Wake Interfaith Hospitality Network has two requirements for homeless families: Adults must be sober and ready to find work. These days, landing jobs isn't so easy.

Executive director Lisa Williams said it used to be most of the parents were young women in their 20s or early 30s. The recession has brought older families to the network, including one 54-year-old.

It has been the churches that have been the biggest boon to the network. Thirty-five churches house the families, and 21 others provide volunteers or financial support.

The majority are United Methodist congregations, but Baptists, Presbyterians, nondenominational Protestants and a few Roman Catholic churches also provide shelter. Two synagogues and a mosque contribute financially or with food donations.

Host churches commit to housing the families four weeks a year -- typically one week every four months. For most churches, this is no trifling commitment.

Typically, it takes between 10 and 20 volunteers a night to perform such tasks as driving the vans, cooking the meals and providing at least one male and female host.

Before the families even set foot in the church, volunteers have set up the bedrooms and planned the meals.

Churches provide three meals a day for the families: a quick, mostly cold breakfast, bagged lunches and dinner, usually prepared in the church kitchen.

The purpose

At Apex United Methodist, dinner one night last week consisted of tacos with ground beef, chopped tomatoes, lettuce and shredded cheese. The dessert list included chocolate cake and watermelon.

Immediately after dinner, the children spread out across the gym floor to toss footballs, shoot hoops and skip rope.

The parents and the older children stepped into the church kitchen to pack their lunches for the next day.

In the second-floor Sunday school rooms, volunteers assembled matching linens, including colorful pillows, for the cots.

The rooms are carpeted, and each family has a sign affixed to the wall outside the door with the names of its occupants.

The network does not proselytize, and religious programming is minimal.

"That's not our purpose here," Halbleib said. "Our purpose is to provide for people in need."

Many volunteers said they felt thankful for the opportunity to interact with homeless families.

"We've met so many neat people who are trying really hard to get back on their feet," said Vicky Harvey, who coordinates meals for the guests at Apex United Methodist.

Indispensable volunteers

Harvey and the other volunteers took turns holding a 2-month-old boy -- one of 17 people hosted last week.

The families included a 40-year-old nursing assistant and his 12-year old daughter, and a couple with seven children who are awaiting a public housing apartment.

Williams, the network's executive director, said it's the volunteers who allow the network to function.

"We run a $1 million agency on a quarter of a million dollars a year," Williams said, calculating that volunteers pitch in 22,850 hours annually.

"Every day, I'm amazed how smoothly it runs."