Imagine a family of seven living in a single-room motel in Kansas City for years.
That was reality for the Messina family in 2013. The bathroom was the only place anyone could go for any resemblance of privacy. That same room was where the family would clean their clothes before hanging them on the balcony. A single microwave was the only way to make meals.
After 41 Action News told their story, a viewer donated enough money to get them out and into a house.
"They go into these motels thinking they'll only be there two or three weeks. Nobody goes in planning for years, but what happens is a child gets sick or a car breaks down and the money you were saving to get a new apartment has to be used to live," River of Refuge founder John Wiley said. "And that's how they get trapped. It happens a lot."
Now, nearly seven years after buying the 10-year-abandoned Park Lane Hospital on Raytown Road, Wiley is ready to help more families like the Messinas.
"So while we've been building this, we've been helping families directly in these motels," Wiley said. "Last year it was over 50 families that we helped."
River of Refuge rehabilitated the hospital and renovated a wing into an 11-unit transitional housing program.
River of Refuge is taking applications now, and the first of five families will begin moving in May 1.
Funding depleted
Only five of the 11 units are furnished and ready for their new tenants.
Wiley says $62,000 is needed to furnish the remaining six units and hire more staff to provide transitional services.
"Seems like a lot, but when we look at all that's been done here to rehab this, it's in the hundreds of hundreds of of thousands of dollars. That was all donated from the local Kansas City companies and people," said Wiley. "It will come."
What River of Refuge will do
After families are out of the motel and into River of Refuge, the financial healing will begin.
"We'll stay with the family on a custom-made graduation. So what we do is we sit down with them after we know what it's going to take for them to get first months, last months' savings in the bank. We'll forecast that calendar date out and then help them toward that goal," Wiley said.
Room and board and food are all free, giving families the chance to save their income and eventually put it toward a first and last month deposit on a new apartment.
More work still to be done
Landscaping, cleaning and other light work still needs to be done.
River of Refuge is hoping the community will come out Saturday, April 23, to help.
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Brian Abel can be reached at brian.abel@kshb.com.
