HUNTSVILLE, Ala. —
On any given night in Alabama, over 3,000 people are without a home. One local group is giving one of our neighbors a brand new start.
Huntsville’s Community of Hope is working on a project to get as many campers as possible and give our homeless citizens a place to live in a brand new community.
We spoke to Mandy Probus, the President and Co-founder of Community of Hope. She says, “It’s a very special place that they can call their own, and we’re thrilled to be able to offer that to them.”
Just a few months ago, Community of Hope moved their first resident into his own camper.
This is their second one, and it is for one man who has struggled with homelessness for over a year.
Probus tells our reporter, “He has been living on the streets in the downtown area for the past 19 months.”
Earlier today, their newest resident ran some errands and did paperwork to register his brand new address. Community members are pitching in to furnish the camper and make it feel like home.
Mandy Probus adds, “We know what his favorite colors are, we know that he’s in love with music. And we shop with excellence-- which means everything is brand new.”
This is all just one step along Community of Hope’s mission to get as many people off the streets as possible. Mandy Probus tells our reporter, “Our short term strategy is to lift people up into campers and place them strategically across the city. We’re also looking for land in 2020, we hope to bring all these campers to one place-- a community that they can all live and thrive in together.”
Tomorrow their newest resident will get to see his new home surrounded by friends and loved ones.
Probus says, “They get a set of keys, which you would think would be not a huge deal-- but, for our friends, it is. It’s their very own set of keys.”
Community of Hope is just getting started. They have much much more planned for this upcoming year. They want to do seven more campers just like this one for our homeless friends here in Huntsville.
For more on Community of Hope and to find out how you can help them reach their goal, click HERE.