A woman and her two small children, ages nine and three, were kicked out of their home Labor Day weekend and were stranded on the side of the road for hours until a concerned citizen stopped to help.

"I could see the children looked very hot, sweaty and she looked upset," said the citizen who asked not to be identified.

The citizen took the family to the Providence House, but workers were not able offer help because it's not considered an emergency shelter.  There wasn't any room at the Rescue Mission or Salvation Army either.

"This is not an unusual situation.  What is terrible about the situation is you have a mother and children out on the street," said Simone Hennessee with Providence House.

Hennessee says the number of people in the area who need temporary or emergency shelter is far greater than the number of available beds and she says the problem is only getting worse.

"With the needs rising, our economy, the debt crisis and the failure of Washington to make any decisions, the economy is really beginning to have a significant downturn," said Hennessee.

Hennessee says cuts in social service programs have really taken a toll on everyone.  The Providence House, which gets 65% of its funding through private donations, has been forced to turn away nearly a thousand families this year.

"There's going to be a greater need for our community to step up, individuals, foundations and others to dig a little bit deeper in their pocket at a time when they may be impacted by the economy," said Hennessee.

Authorities say Northwest Louisiana is very short on family housing.

Christa Pazzaglia with the Homeless Coalition says there is hope though.  The coalition is in the process of creating a one-stop shop for the homeless.

"We are redesigning the system that's around the existing homeless services.  We have great services, but we don't really have a system for accessibility for those services," said Pazzaglia.

The facility should be finished by next year.  

While that comes too late for the woman and children who were kicked to the curb, it will hopefully help others in the future.