Holt resident Laura Dingee is celebrating a big life milestone.
“I’m getting ready to get my own house. I’ve been approved for a mortgage by myself.”
A few years ago, Laura couldn't fathom owning a home. Instead, she was in dire need of a place to provide shelter for herself and her daughter. They were grappling with homelessness while Laura battled numerous personal demons.
“I am a heroin addict in recovery. And I lived on the streets of Detroit for a couple years. Got clean and had about three years of sobriety, and we moved from Owosso to Lansing for a job. And that Job didn't work out.”
During that period, Laura and her daughter briefly stayed with a friend, but that arrangement didn't last. She found herself without a place to go, devoid of finances, support, or any resources. It was then that she discovered Haven House, an emergency shelter tailored specifically for families in need.
Gabe Biber is the Executive Director of Haven House.
“We have a homeless shelter here in East Lansing for up to seven families at a time. But we've also been expanding our prevention and outreach programs. And we have a very well-established Follow Up program called Partners in progress that works with families for up to a year while they're in housing to maintain stability and prevent a return to homelessness.”
“Haven house's Partners in progress helped me so much and Pam, who works with the program, literally held my hand for a whole year helping me to figure out how to budget, helping me to figure out how to get household cleaners and you know, paper towel, toilet paper and other toiletries; anything we needed."
Similar to Laura, Linda Bennett too experienced homelessness as a single mother. However, Linda faced a unique challenge as her son, Chris, was a severely disabled adult who depended entirely on her for everything.
"My son and I were homeless, and we were in Grand Rapids at the time. We were having an extremely hard time finding shelter because he was 25 years old at the time and completely disabled. But that didn't matter. The shelters have rules that the oldest male could be in with the women and girls was 12 years old. Anything over that they had to go into a men's shelter. Well, Chris could not go into a man's Shelter by himself. He needed care 24 hours."
Linda's greatest fear revolved around the state possibly separating her from her son. Without a fixed address, she wasn't receiving any form of state aid crucial for Chris's full-time care, which was an all-encompassing responsibility.
“Christopher was my adopted child. I spent my whole life taking care of him. Because I felt that that's what I was supposed to do. I don't want to get real religious, but God brought him into my life, and I took care of him for that reason.”
Linda was referred to Haven House and the first thing they did to help her was to give her a physical address so she could apply to get aid to help her care for Chris.
Gabe says Laura and Linda’s stories are all too familiar; homelessness is prevalent even here in mid-Michigan.
“More than 500 people are homeless in the Lansing area at any given time. Shelter has been a limited resource, but safe affordable housing is also a limited resource.”
Laura credits Haven House for helping her get to a point where she is now able to purchase her own home.
“If it weren't for Haven House, I don't know where I would be. I don't know that I'd still have custody of my daughter. I am so proud of myself because I couldn't have done that without the help from them. But, I realized that I could do it with the help of them.”
Linda agrees.
“People at Haven House are good neighbors because they provide help to families who are in severe need of it and they're the only shelter in the area that keeps families intact.”
We agree and want to say thank you to Haven House for providing opportunities for people to get out of homelessness and live a productive life.
If you would like more information about Haven House visit their website at www.havenhouseel.org
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