Avalon Housing is planning on furnishing 70 affordable housing apartments with the help of their partners and the community.
Seventy affordable housing units at Hickory Way Apartments are being furnished by Ann Arbor’s Avalon Housing and their partners, the Kiwanis Club and HouseN2Home.
Avalon Housing will complete construction on the first phase of 70 units of affordable housing at Hickory Way Apartments on S. Maple Road in Ann Arbor. Hickory Way tenants will be exiting homelessness and moving into new homes for the first time in a long time. Most of these people will only be carrying most of their belongings with them, and will be in need of basic furnishings for their new homes. Finding proper furnishings for 70 households have proven to be a challenge, particularly during a pandemic. In order to complete this monumental project, Avalon Housing has partnered with Washtenaw-based HouseN2Home and Kiwanis Club.
HouseN2Home is enlisting their volunteers, clubs, groups, organizations, and businesses to provide essential items to apartments (smaller furniture, bedding, dishware, cooking utensils, and cleaning supplies) for the 70 apartments.
Kiwanis Club has offered to help secure larger essential items, such as couches, kitchen tables, and dressers. Although the Kiwanis’s store in Scio Township has been closed to the public since March due to COVID, the Kiwanis’s sales committee offered to partner with Avalon to help build their inventory and help provide furnishings for these new tenants.
Says Marcia Luke-van Dijk, Avalon’s Director of Fund Development: “Avalon is thrilled to work alongside HouseN2Home and Kiwanis to help 70 of our neighbors not just move into housing, but to be warmly welcomed into their homes. For most of us, it’s not the place itself, but the sense of comfort we cultivate within it that makes it feel like home. Everyone can be a part of making that comfort a reality for people by providing these furnishings. Working together, we can build a Hickory Way community where everyone has the chance to thrive.”
Ruth Ann Logue from HouseN2Home adds: “We are thrilled to collaborate with Avalon at Hickory Way. It is a wonderful opportunity for HouseN2Home to do what we do best, furnish homes for adults moving out of homelessness. This project is a great way to pull the community together for a common cause during these difficult times.”
Starting September 15, anyone wishing to donate gently used, clean furniture in good condition can bring their items to Kiwanis’s store at 100 N. Staebler Road in Ann Arbor on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 9 am to 3 pm.
Hickory Way tenants are especially in need of loveseats, comfortable chairs, small bedroom dressers, small kitchen tables, and kitchen chairs. Smaller household items, including end tables, lamps, easy chairs, and night stands are also needed for Hickory Way, in addition to other items that people may wish to donate to Kiwanis. Donations can also be dropped off on Saturdays from 9 am to 1 pm once the Kiwanis Thrift Sale re-opens on September 19.
If you are interested in “sponsoring” a Hickory Way unit through HouseN2Home or to learn more about the great work they do for the community, see here.
Financial donations for the purchase of items for Hickory Way households can be made online via Avalon Housing.
Avalon will not be taking applications for the Hickory Way units or maintaining a waiting list. Housing applications are handled through Housing Access of Washtenaw County (HAWC). Contact HAWC at (734) 961-1999 or housingaccess.net.
