Wheat Ridge Ministries is awarding Madison-area Urban Ministry’s Healing House a three-year $50,000 grant to help support the project that will be located at 303 Lathrop St. in Madison.
“We have been working with our congregational and community partners for three years to make this a reality. The need is real,” says Madison-area Urban Ministry (MUM) Executive Director Linda Ketcham. “We hear it from people working in homeless services, we hear it from our school teachers and social workers, and we’re getting calls from hospital social workers looking for a place for homeless patients to safely recuperate. This grant moves us closer to Healing House as a reality.”
On Wednesday, Aug. 3, Rev. Joanne Otte of Wheat Ridge Ministries will be touring the proposed site of Healing House, a 24/7 recuperative respite for families who are homeless and have a child or parent in need of recuperative care post discharge from the hospital or emergency room. Currently, at best, families may be able to get a couple of days in a motel but go without follow-up medical care, food or transportation to medical appointments. Healing House will offer 24/7 housing, food, monitoring and case management support to assist families in transitioning into permanent housing.
First Congregational United Church of Christ owns the building at 303 Lathrop and is making a significant financial commitment to the project.
“We are called to care for our neighbors, whether they have housing or not, whether they have insurance or not, we are called to care,” says Senior Minister Eldonna Hazen. “Healing House will be the physical manifestation of that care and commitment to our faith and to the call to love our neighbors as ourselves.”
MUM is in the midst of a $1,000,000 Capital Campaign to make Healing House a reality (includes renovations to the site and 18 months operating budget). Healing House will be the first such facility in Wisconsin, and will become the 66th such facility nationally. Currently, homeless families often fly under the radar and children or parents who require surgery and are homeless have their procedures postponed because they have no safe place in which to recuperate. Healing House will fill that gap.
