Program gives mobile homes to homeless

Holding the title to his own home -- "I can say, 'This is mine,' " he told 24 Hour News 8 on Monday -- is a scene so starkly different from what Dennis Huston's life was like just more than six months ago.

"The furnace had went out," Huston recalled, "And we're talking wintertime."

His hours had been cut back, so the 58-year-old could not afford the bills anymore at the Grand Rapids home he was renting. The Vietnam veteran knew where he would have ended up.

"Most likely, the streets," Huston said.

But he heard about a program that could help people who had some income but could not keep up.

Family Promise of Grand Rapids -- which helps families struggling to find housing -- had just launched what it calls Partners in Housing.

Michigan has the eighth-highest rate of homelessness in the nation, according to the latest report from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. It concluded 28,248 people in the state -- a number higher than the population of the city of Walker -- are homeless.

Partners In Housing was the idea of former Kent County commissioner Jack Boelema. He saw homelessness as an issue and realized how relatively inexpensive mobile homes could be. Boelema raised the private funds to start the program, which began with just a handful of homes. It found one for Huston.

"The first thing I did, I turned up the heat and said, 'Ah, heat!' " he remembered.

For six months, people in the program have to show they'll be able to make it as a homeowner, covering costs on their own such as utilities and rent for the lot on which the mobile home sits.

"Make sure that everything's paid on time, keeping a clean place, keeping the yard up to date," Huston said.

If people in the program meet the requirements after six months, the mobile home becomes theirs. Huston is the first -- others like Tia Stewart could get the title within months.

"To see someone like Tia, Dennis ... just brings so much joy to my heart," said Barbara Zylstra, assistant director for Family Promise Grand Rapids.

Her joy in helping has left Huston with a feeling he says he can barely describe.

"I love this place," he said.

To reach Family Promise of Grand Rapids, call (616) 475-5220.

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