Imagine you suddenly found yourself homeless through no fault of your own. How would it change your life, and the life of your children and family? Imagine the stress and emotional trauma it could cause. How would you cope? Where would you sleep? How would you stay safe? How would you get by?
Housing is a fundamental human need and right. No matter what hand life deals us, we all deserve a safe, secure place to rest our head at the end of the day, and a solid roof above us to help weather any storms we encounter.
Thankfully, there are many amazing organizations in the world who have made it their life mission to assist people who are struggling with homelessness. One of these organizations is Open House Ministries:
About Open House Ministries
Open House Ministries are a family and women’s shelter that houses over one hundred residents every night. More than half of these are children who would otherwise be homeless and on the street. Open House Ministries are unique in that they believe overcoming homelessness requires time and transitional support. Because of this they offer homeless families more than just a temporary stay of a few days or weeks.
Open House Ministries support homeless families (mostly women and children) to stay for up to a year in their own accommodation. They also provide counseling, job training, drug rehab if needed, free daycare, and a chance for these families to get their lives back in order and to reclaim their independence.
If you would like to learn more about Open House Ministries, you find their website at www.sheltered.org.
Open House Ministries’ New housing Project
The existing facility run by Open House Ministries has enough rooms to accommodate about 40 families. After spending a year in this accommodation, however, residents can often find it difficult to pay for an apartment on a minimum wage income, while also supporting themselves.
For this reason Open House Ministries is planning a new 30 unit apartment complex, across the street from their current accommodation. Women will be able to transition from the temporary one-year accommodation into these new apartments at half what it would usually cost to rent a similar dwelling. In these new apartments they can live for another two years before they move out on their own.
In this accommodation residents can continue to get counseling and day care. In this way the new developments are not just low-income housing. They are part of a program that helps homeless women and families restore their lives, and goes a long way towards addressing the homelessness situation in the area.
The program run by Open House Ministries has so far been a huge success, and these new developments will allow them to expand their mission to help many more people overcome homelessness.
The Visuals We Created to Help Support the New Open House Ministries Housing Development
As part of this project we created a series of different visuals, including external property views showing the accommodation blocks from the outside, along with some commercial shopfronts which will be home to a thrift store and bicycle sales and repair shop.
We also created a series of different floor plan views showing different layouts for one, two and three bedroom apartments, which will accommodate families of different sizes.
Finally, we also created a series of interior visualizations, showing what the accommodations will look like from the inside.
We think you’ll agree the new developments that Open House Ministries have designed look great, and we’re sure the new occupants will be very happy in them!
We were happy to be part of such a meaningful project, and gave Open House Ministries a significant discount on our normal rates through our “Good Cause” discount.
To view larger images of the visuals below, click on them and they will open at a larger size in a lightbox.
Interested in Supporting Open House Ministries? Here’s How You can Help
If you have been inspired by seeing this project and would like to assist Open House Ministries, there are a number of ways you can help.
Open House Ministries accept financial gifts, which help to provide housing and services and can have an immediate impact on people in need.
You may also like to contribute items to the Open House Ministries thrift store where you can donate clothing or household goods, or to their pantry, which currently accepts hygiene products, non-perishable pantry items and fresh produce.
You may also like to “adopt a room”, where you would help to provide furnishings for incoming tenants in need.
Visit www.sheltered.org/donate/ for more information.
Are You Involved With a Charitable Organization That Needs Help With a Similar Project? Ask about our “Good Cause” Discount!
We have completed lots of projects over the years for many different types of charities and non-profits, both big and small. We have helped create visuals for everything from churches and places of worship, to recreational and medical facilities, educational institutions and more.
You can learn more about our work with charities and non-profits here. We offer a substantial discount for charities and non-profits that we call our “Good Cause” discount. It’s our way of giving back and helping make the world a better place by assisting the good works of others.
We’d love to hear about your charity or non-profit and how we can help your projects to be successful!