How can $20,000 help address homelessness in Warwick?

The Rotary Club of Warwick believes it can do a lot in the hands of the House of Hope Community Development Corporation. On Dec. 9 Janis Constantine, chair of the club’s charity committee, handed Laura Jaworski, executive director of the Warwick-based nonprofit a $20,000 check. The funds represent a matching grant of $10,000 from an anonymous donor and $10,000 from club charitable funds.

In brief, the money is going to help homelessness by helping those who were without safe and stable housing succeed as tenants in HOH housing.

HOH that had its start in Warwick in 1989 has a strong statewide presence today. Its goal is to provide permanent, safe, stable housing to those who would otherwise be on the street and depending on temporary shelters.

Presently it operates 15 houses in Warwick. It owns all but two of them.

Those houses have a total of 44 units, providing homes for 80 to 90 people, Jaworski said. Statewide, the HOH operates 200 units.

Jaworski recognizes there’s the demand for many more units. She has prompted the use of tiny houses, also called Pallet Houses, as a means of getting homeless off the streets and from living out of their cars into a house. The tiny houses, offering 400 square feet, would offer a transition to more permanent and spacious housing. So far, Jaworski hasn’t been able to locate a space for tiny houses. She’s looked at empty lots and even warehouses where the tiny houses could be erected indoors.

The red hot housing market has further complicated HOH efforts to secure housing. Many of the houses it operates were acquired through foreclosure auctions or from the city and organizations.

One of its first properties was the former Spring Green School that it converted into housing units. HOH also renovated the former St. Francis Convent into housing, naming it the Conway House for

Sister Fran Conway. Other Warwick HOH properties are historic homes on Fair Street in Pawtuxet including the Fair House, which looked to be a likely candidate for demolition, until HOH received the funding to transition it into a 10-unit housing complex.

The Rotary grant is specifically earmarked for Warwick. Jaworski said the money would go toward “supportive services” and the salaries of two case management employees. The employees will work with tenants to assist them in reaching their goals.

“There are a lot of things needed to make a home,” said Jaworski.

As tenants of HOH housing may be new to Warwick, or for that matter new to housing of their own, case workers could be faced with a multitude of questions from how to register their children for school and Little League, to managing finances and where to find furnishings. The goal is to have people succeed and to “fill those gaps so there are no hiccups,” she said. That can include making tenants aware of other agencies that can assist.

Jaworski said the funding “enables us to provide critical services… to have people feel normal.”

Constantine of the Rotary Club said several organizations were considered for the donation. There was no application process and the grant came as a surprise to HOH.

In a statement, Michael Maynard, HOH President of the Board of Directors said, “We appreciate the generous support of the Rotary Club. This donation is a testament to the outstanding work of the House of Hope staff. As a board member for the past six years and the current president, I’ve been fortunate to get to know many of the staff and I’ve seen how they interact with their clients. They treat each person with the dignity they deserve and work with them as individuals to meet their unique needs.”