JANUARY 12, 2024 MAKING CHANGE Turning Houses2Homes SUHITA CHINTALACHARUVU U-M student contributor Six years ago, a small group of service-driven individuals and friends worked together to furnish a home for a single mother and her children. In 2017, they took that experience and turned it into a community-wide nonprofit organization. HouseN2Home is their name and furnishing homes for the homeless is their game. Their motto absolutely embodies what their mission is: “creating a space for people to thrive.” HouseN2Home operates mainly in the southeast Michigan region, with their office in Ypsilanti. Their workers are primarily volunteers, and they have grown in the past six years to over 100 volunteers. They have many community partners, such as United Way of Washtenaw County, Ann Arbor Area Community Foundation and Trinity Health. The organization targets people in the area who are moving out of homeless shelters and into rental housing. However, each homeless individual’s situation varies greatly, and the organization does their best to match everyone’s unique needs. Their process for furnishing homes is very in-depth and thorough. It begins when a caseworker from a local shelter finds a family that has housing and needs help with the move. HouseN2Home workers then meet with the family and assess their new home and their needs. They obtain all the necessary furniture and household goods, and remarkably, most of the items are donated. On the big move-in day, volunteers load up the furniture, move it to the new home, and arrange it to make the house feel like a home. Amazingly, with this process, they have completely furnished over 925 homes since 2017 for individuals and their families in Washtenaw County. Clearly, they have had a huge positive impact on the community! On their website, you can see the evidence of this impact in the last two years. In 2022, they performed 290 moves, which was a 30% increase from 2021, and they furnished over 500 moves in the past two years alone. Out of those clients, they served 199 children, crafting safe and stable home environments for these kids. In 2022, they contributed 16,000 volunteer hours, showing the importance and value of volunteers for this organization. They also added many new community partners, including the University of Michigan’s Office of Sustainability. A non-profit like HouseN2Home requires lots of support, and there are so many ways members of the community can get involved. The main way to participate is through volunteering. There are several different opportunities for volunteers such as refurbishing donations, cooking meals for clients or assisting on move-in days. HouseN2Home is an equal opportunity nonprofit organization, so any volunteer will feel welcomed and valued! Another great way to participate is by donating gently used furniture for the organization to use in the furnishing of new homes. Finally, contributors can also sponsor a move, which typically costs around $600, or also just donate to the organization to reduce the costs of each move. HouseN2Home provides such a great service to the community. They truly go above and beyond in their work, even providing families with items like toys, books and decorations to really make their clients’ new houses feel like homes. I would highly recommend checking out this amazing organization and helping them serve the community because it’s clear how much they value each of their clients and how big of a difference they have made in Michigan! Check out their website to coordinate donations and get involved: www.housen2home.org/ GROUNDCOVER NEWS Lansing’s “Fretail” Store is a good idea for Ann Arbor JANE ATKINS U-M student contributor Cardboard Prophets’ Fretail Store in the Lansing Mall looks just like a normal retail store: display racks, mannequin, and tags on each item. The twist? Everything is free. The “dignity tags” contain Cardboard Prophets’ phone number on the barcode and an inspirational message rather than a price. Cardboard Prophets is an outreach organization founded by Mike Karl, aiming to involve the community in real change for people who are homeless or at risk for homelessness in the Lansing area. The store is an innovative, direct response to the needs of homeless and low-income people in Lansing, and Ann Arbor should consider how its unique approach could benefit our community. The Fretail Store started as a diaper bank with no storefront. They were offered a space in the Lansing Mall to operate in, and Karl knew it could be used for more. It has grown exponentially since it opened in 2020. It has been a hub for thousands of Michigan families and individuals to shop with dignity and receive the items they need to maintain a good quality of life. The store has clothes, food, furniture and much more. In the past, the Fretail Store gave out 200,000 cans of formula to families all over Michigan during the formula shortage. Families from all over Michigan traveled to the Fretail store to get formula for their children. During Christmas time, the entire storefront transformed into a toy store, which helped 2,200 families get Christmas gifts. Karl said they are looking to double that this year as the holidays are approaching. The Fretail Store has had such a positive impact on the Lansing community that it comes as no surprise that people from across the state and the country are contacting Cardboard Prophets looking to replicate see FRETAIL page 11 7 CONTENT correction In the Dec. 15, 2023 edition of the Groundcover News, the words of a Jewish prayer were incorrect. The corrected version: "If the desire to honor the memory of your loved one impels you to do a mitzvah you otherwise would not have done, learn something you otherwise would not have learned or go higher and farther than ever before then the soul of the deceased lives on in you." Cultural appropriation was never intended. In the Oct. 20 GCN edition, Morgan Battle, one of the previous directors of The Breakfast at St. Andrew's, was omitted.
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