Ryan Van Velzer

The Republic | azcentral.com

The last place Anne Hillman thought she would end up was a homeless shelter.

Then again, she didn't expect to have a heart attack minutes before moving from Ohio to Arizona, either.

But both happened.

After leaving the hospital, Hillman, her partner Melva Diggs, their daughter Jada Buck, 3, and their two dogs decided they would stay the plan and leave Ohio for the Valley of the Sun.

The whole family drove to Phoenix with what little money they had left after paying Hillman's medical bills.

They arrived to learn the house they planned on renting would be $350 per month more than they expected.

Hillman and the rest of her family resorted to living out of motels. It wasn't long before the money ran out.

Diggs called around to homeless shelters looking for a place to stay, but no one would accept their entire family, dogs included.

"Some people were like, 'You can stay here, but you've got to forfeit your dogs,' " Hillman said. "Well, I'm not willing to do that. So we decided we would live in the car if we had to, before giving up the dogs."

It's a common story, one that Ted Taylor, executive director for Family Promise, a Valley homeless shelter, knows well.

"Families would ask about pets and consistently, they would refuse shelter," he said. "When you see enough of that, it breaks your heart."

While there's no data on the actual number of homeless families with pets, Taylor's found that 27 percent of all the families that visit the Family Promise have pets. That is one in four families that would have been turned away, Taylor said.

In 2012, Taylor together with Andy Izquierdo, vice president of corporate affairs for PetSmart, began Arizona's only program for homeless families seeking shelter with their pets.

The PetSmart Promise program helps families get back on their feet in about six weeks, on average, Taylor said.

During the day, parents look for jobs, work and save money while their children go to daycare or school. At night, the families stay with Valley faith organizations, moving locations every week, he said.

In the meantime, the pets hang out inside an air-conditioned apartment that Family Promise and PetSmart have converted into a kennel, receive free vaccinations from the Arizona Humane Society and play with the staff in the dog-run, Taylor said.

In October, the PetSmart Promise program will celebrate its second anniversary. In that time, the Scottsdale location has helped 37 families, 36 dogs, 19 cats, a turtle and a fish, Taylor said.

"It's been an honor to serve the families of Greater Phoenix, along with our great partner PetSmart, over the last two years," he said.

And that's just in Arizona.

The program has expanded into seven additional facilities across the country, including five that opened this year, Izquierdo said. Hopefully, the program will expand into every Family Promise shelter all cross the country, he said.

"Giving up a pet to go into a shelter is a devastating thing," he said. "I think that this program has helped people through a difficult time and it's helped to keep their entire families together."

Back at Family Promise the location in Scottsdale, Lilly, a 10-year-old Welsh corgie, and Hazel, a 10-year-old beagle-yellow lab mix, hang out inside an air-conditioned apartment, living the dog's life.

In the evenings after work and school, the whole family goes for a walk. Tails wag, smiles abound and a family sticks together.