The Rochester Housing Authority is opening a property that will serve as the regions first dedicated emergency housing for families affected by fire damage.
Interim Executive Director of the Rochester Housing Authority, Shawn Burr said this project started earlier this year, when he got a call from a board member on a Saturday morning. A family, a single mother Rachael and her two children Maddie and Aiden, had reached out asking RHA if they had any housing available, after they lost everything in a fire.
"And I was embarrassed to say that you know we don’t. We don’t have that type of housing. We never had and it’s really not typical of public housing authorities to have that."
Burr said that sparked a discussion about how that should be a part of their mission.
So a two apartment home on Whalin Street in the South Wedge will now be a dedicated emergency home. Initially, it is available to small families without insurance, who have been affected by a fire.
"So we wanted to be able to provide an apartment of a full house that was furnished that people could go into and begin to rebuild their lives."
The house will be stocked with cleaning supplies and laundry for families to get on their feet, with a maximum stay of 90 days.
"During those 90 days I know the Red Cross works with folks to try and provide them with support services and we will obviously be working with them to do the same as well as how do we get them into more permanent housing."
Burr hopes they can eventually open an emergency home in every quadrant of the city.
"If somebody has a devastating fire, they don’t have any insurance; you know they don’t have to go far away to find temporary housing. They can be close to their neighborhood where they’re familiar with things; they have their friends and families nearby, schools for the kids and so on."
RHA will also dedicate the two apartments as "Maddie’s Home" and "Aiden's Home" named for the two kids and the family who brought this need to RHA's attention.
Funding for the project came from RHAs unrestricted funds, which does not include HUD or taxpayer money.