Lutheran men's fellowship helps renovate Ezra House
March 2008
By Bradley Schlegel
From The Reporter
LANSDALE - John Kunes and his fraternal group replaced a French door with dry wall and installed fire extinguishers, smoke detectors, new carpet and shower curtains at Ezra House, a temporary housing facility in Lansdale for single homeless men in Montgomery County.
The group also painted two rooms and donated nine twin beds.
In three weeks, 20 volunteers from Trinity Lutheran Church in Lansdale donated their time and $3,000 to renovate seven rooms and made two others liveable at the rooming house, which is operated by Community Housing Services.
"It's really cool to know we helped get a few more guys off hte street," said Kunes, whose group utilized a $1,600 grant from a men's Lutheran organization in upper Bucks County.
A few years ago, Trinity started the Men in Mission committee, which is co-chaired by Chris Randall and Joe Kovatch, to help foster men's relationships in the family. Its work has included helping church members move or providing disaster relief.
Kunes, the director of lay ministry at Trinity, said the committee agreed to help renovate Ezra House for its Martin Luther King Jr. holiday project.
The church's men's committee, as well as its volunteer maintenance support group along with its pastors and other staff, helped seal off an entrance into a previously vacant room near the rear of the facility.
The new space will be used for storage, according to Rob Fecho, Community Housing center's program manager.
Near the front door, the Trinity church members replaced a glass wall with dry wall.
"Those guys hammered out some serious work," Fecho said. "They did serious construction."
Besides cleaning hte rooms with mops and buckets, the church organization provided a washer and dryer and book shelves for several rooms.
Kunes said the books will soon follow.
"By the time we were done, the rooms looked pretty nice," he said.
Homeless men are permitted to stay at Ezra House, which Fecho said is supposed to be a bridge between homelessness and self-sufficiency, for two years.
Fecho said the participants, who are assigned case workers, are required to complete several steps before leaving the program. Ezra House officials attempt to find work at local businesses for their clients.
"With single men there seems to be an aura that they should be able to support themselves," Fech said. "A lot of our clients may not have that aptitude."
Beyond single men, Fecho reports an increase in the amount of clients entering CHS programs with mental disabilities. Over the last two to three years, that number has increased 10 to 15 percent, he said.
Although most of CHS clients are single mothers, Fecho said the applicants "run the gamut."
Community Housing Services, located at 311 N. Broad St., Lansdale, can be reached at (215) 362-5376 or www.communityhs.org.