More than 100 people crowded a meeting room to hear about a faith-based organization that wants to team with Mountain View Lutheran Church to temporarily house homeless families in Ahwatukee Foothills.

Families would stay at the church for one week, up to four times a year.

Family Promise, the organization at the center of the controversy, gathered volunteers, a former client and its president Tuesday night to present the group's case to an audience of residents.

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Church leaders will vote Tuesday on whether they want to join the program.

They explained that parents and children who are guests of the program arrive at the church after 6 p.m. and leave by 5:30 a.m. to go to work, look for jobs or go to school.

"I appreciate the opportunity to talk to neighbors and get across our program and how it works," said Mitra Khazai, president of Family Promise, a 4-year-old organization that is a partner with 17 churches in the Valley to temporarily house homeless families for a week at a time.

The meeting was organized by the Ahwatukee Homeowners Association after residents complained about the prospect of the 48th Street church bringing homeless families into the area.

The acrimony began in December when an anonymous flier began circulating in the community urging residents to "act now" and express opposition to homeless families being housed in Ahwatukee Foothills.

By January, the church was deluged with concerns that homeless families brought into the community would also bring in problems.

"We just wanted to come together and see where we are heading," said Christopher Gentis, president of the 5,100-member Ahwatukee Homeowners Association, while addressing the gathering.

About one-third of the Family Promise volunteers from Mission Del Sol Presbyterian Church in Tempe attended the meeting, including Karen McComish, wife of Rep. John McComish, R-Phoenix, who lives in and represents Ahwatukee Foothills in the Legislature.

Volunteers from Dayspring United Methodist Church in Tempe and Shadow Rock United Church of Christ in north central Phoenix also spoke about the value of Family Promise to its clients.

They shared how the organization changed their minds and those of their congregation about homeless people.

Though Mountain View Lutheran Church does not need permission from the city or the community to temporarily host homeless families, the volunteers were there to change the minds of skeptical Ahwatukee Foothills residents who fear their community will change for the worse.

"My picture was that of an indigent individual pushing a shopping cart," said Jim Baker, a volunteer whose church, Tempe-based Dayspring United Methodist, has been a part of the program for three years. "The program breaks down the barrier between us and them. I realize after having become acquainted with them that not all of us are far from that possibility."

In an audience, which included many senior citizens, volunteers tried to mute safety concerns.

Churches usually house three to five families and they don't wander around the church or community, the Ahwatukee residents were told. And to really drive home the point, volunteers at other churches explained that their children associated with those of the homeless families.

Bob Mundy, a volunteer at Shadow Rock United Church of Christ, added, "I know there is concern about whether this will become a magnet for people in the street. But when kids go to bed and there is no crying, no fear, no stress, just quiet - that's the impact and benefit of this program."

Written questions from the audience ranged from queries about the immigration status of the program's participants to their criminal backgrounds, to who would be responsible for vandalized property in the community.

"I thought it was unfair because no one there spoke up for Ahwatukee," said Florence Livengood, who lives in the area. "All of the people there had nothing to say. Where were our representatives? I don't see why we should help unwed mothers."

Tanya Smith, another resident, said, "Once you have this element here you'll never get rid of them."

"They'll come here and think it's nice here, I'll stay," Smith said. "I'm concerned they'll wander around and steal."

Even the words of a client, Biviana Cervantes, who was helped by the program, were not enough to change the minds of Smith, Livengood and others opposed to the organization coming to Ahwatukee.

"The parishioners at the churches talked to me in a loving way," said Cervantes, who attends school and works part time for Tempe and Family Promise. "They let me believe in myself."