Home For Larry

GOD STORY #4

 By Tim Bucey, volunteer reporter

Twelve-year-old Shian (pronounced Cheyenne) Adams was upset when she was told the family would be moving … again.

She had moved with her father and what had been as many as five other children in the household numerous other times.

What she didn’t at first realize was this last move that took place the week before Christmas last year would be the final time she’d be uprooted. She, her father, Jerry, her brother Jerry, Jr., 16, Skyler, 3, and Savannah, 1, (Jerry’s grandchildren) were going to have a home of their own.

Theirs is the result of a number of local ministries under the Nehemiah Foundation umbrella and social service agencies working together to find a happy ending for a deserving and desperate family. It’s another “God story,” because, yes, He did some maneuvering that made everything happen.

The family became clients of Heather Baker, case manager at Children’s Rescue Center. It was Heather who, thanks to a meeting she attended, suggested they file the necessary paperwork to see if they qualified for a home through Habitat for Humanity.

But Heather marvels at how she and Dawn Stutz, the local Habitat executive director, came together. Call it a God thing.

The two were brought together in a meeting with Selena Martin, director of Hannah House and Kingdom House. Heather knew of Habitat but wasn’t acquainted with Dawn.

Jerry had just become one of her clients when she met Dawn.

“I felt this real pull toward (Dawn) and I didn’t know what it was. And so all sudden it hit me one day -- Jerry would be perfect person for Habitat. That’s why I met Dawn -- for Jerry,” Heather said.

An automobile accident left Jerry, 43, disabled and living on Social Security disability insurance and welfare payments for the children. He tried to work but when he was injured on the job as patient care technician and nurses’ aide his doctor discovered he also had a disease that made his bones brittle.

“He told me to stay home and take care of the kids,” said Jerry.

But where was home? Jerry said his mother ordered them to leave her small house when the children became too much for her. Two wives abandoned the family. He wondered if he was up to the task, ending up in a mental health unit for depression. He said he contemplated suicide.

At mental health, they hooked him up with a program called Permanent Housing with Supportive Services, which is funded by a HUD grant and under the auspices of Interfaith Hospitality Network, Project Woman, Craig House and the Children’s Rescue Center.

“We got into that program because we were homeless for a while,” Jerry said.

Permanent Housing was able to get them a three-bedroom apartment at first but it was torn down to make room for new homes in Lincoln Park. They were moved to a two-bedroom apartment.

He slept on the floor in the living room as did Shian. Jerry, Jr and Chris, an older son who no longer lives with them, had the bedrooms. The two grandchildren were to join them later when a daughter said she couldn’t cope with the demands being a mother. She lives near their new Habitat home on Kenton Street but only visits the children on occasion.

When their carpet caught on fire in the two-bedroom apartment, they were moved to a one-bedroom where they lived for just under one year.

They were able to move back to the two bedroom later and that’s where they were living when Heather suggested contacting Habitat.

“I approached Jerry and we talked about it and kept our fingers crossed and prayed,” Heather said.

“We thought it would be a really good program for me and the kids,” Jerry said.

They filled out the paperwork and the timing was right. Habitat had three houses under construction but was looking for a family to occupy a house to be built with partial funding from Ohio Edison/First Energy.

They were notified that their days of being shuffled between apartments that were too small to comfortably accommodate the family was about to end.

“It was great. It was something. I never will forget that day,” Jerry said, referring to the day he was told they were accepted by Habitat.

Until then, Permanent Housing kept them sheltered and off the streets, but they had no prospects for a stable life with a place to call their own.

“Before Habitat came along, I saw no light at the end of the tunnel. We thought we were going to be stuck where we were at for a long time,” Jerry said. “I had no hope, none at all.”

It got worse for the family who attends Maplewood Church of the Nazarene. Early in 2007 his older daughter called and said she couldn’t handle her two children any more. She brought them to Jerry for him to take care of them in their two-bedroom apartment. Jerry doesn’t complain.

“They’re safer here,” he says as Savannah snuggles up to him and Skyler balances herself by holding onto his knee.

And at least now, he has a home of his own to raise them.

“He is a remarkable man. He has been through everything you can think of, and he is still smiling and still standing. He is doing it all,” Heather said.

Eventually, Shian came to realize what moving again meant. When the foundation to the house was poured, Jerry said she became excited.

No more moving. No more sleeping on the floor.

He sees their new home as an answer to prayers.