When we move our offices into the new community building later this year, it will leave Durant House empty until it is demolished a few years from now to make way for the new affordable housing project on our campus.
Given our commitment to being a Sanctuary Church–a church that advocates for, welcomes, and tends the needs of refugees and immigrants fleeing violence in their home nations–we’re considering offering the otherwise empty Durant House in the interim as emergency housing for asylum seekers. We’d partner with our longtime trusted friends at Interfaith Movement for Human Integrity (IM4HI) to find appropriate asylum seekers. We would set up the empty house for human dwelling, and perhaps provide some meals and other forms of support. IM4HI would manage logistics of deciding who lives there and when, and internal dynamics among the people staying there.
This is a short(ish) term project that would have a huge impact on the lives of people fleeing trauma and violence, and arriving here with nothing. Would you like to be part of a working group to put more flesh on the bones of this idea, and take it from discernment to fruition? If so email Rev. Molly at [email protected].