The House of Mercy and 2nd Chances Thrift Store in Loyal
Saturday, May 18th, 2019 -- 10:20 AM
-The City of Loyal has a wonderful Homeless Shelter and, as of the end of April, a new thrift store tied to the shelter.I spoke with Judy Morrow, who was instrumental in getting both started, and she explained how the House of Mercy started.
“In the Spring of 2016, I went to Father Steve Bryce’s house and I said, ‘Father Steve, you could house all kinds of homeless people.’ Because I worked with homeless people for many, many years in my hometown. And he turned around and looked at me and said, ‘I will help you do that.’ And I was so excited to have his help!”
“So, then we began the process of where would it be? And he said he had an empty convent, so we thought that was a really good idea. So, we started talking to the people of the community, which you need their support, and they felt that an empty convent was too close to the children at the school. And I can understand that because people have a fear of homeless people, all though, they’re just like everybody else. So, we began the process of looking forward and one of the members of the church said, ‘why don’t you look at that big building downtown Loyal.’ So we did and, thank God for the community of Clark County, because we raised $90,000 in 60 days and bought that building.”
“So, our first tennant came in November of 2016 and, since then, we’ve had 16 families and 35 children. So, one of the things that the National Movement of Homelessness states is that the national movement called Housing First indicates that housing professionals have learned that until families have their basic needs, like food and shelter, there’s no way that they’ll move on. So, that’s a big statement.”
“So, what we’re doing in the homeless area is that we realize a shelter is a band aid, so we have a beyond shelter. Our beyond shelter, as they enter into our program, they have to sign a contract with us, which includes such basic things like no alcohol, no drugs, no men, except they can visit, but they can’t stay, and then the goal setting. So, with the goal setting, we set a 6 month goal, a 9 month goal and by a year, if everything has fallen into place like it should, they should have enough finances to move on, they’ll have a secure job and we’ll help them find housing. Now, we realize that in Loyal that’s pretty tough, because if you don’t have a car, you don’t have transportation. There’s not a whole lot of jobs in that area because we live in a little town, so sometimes it’s kinda hard. But we work with Gary Veltus at the Workforce Resource Center and there is so much opportunity.”
“So, as soon as a woman comes into our house, we set up the appointment for them to visit workforce and then we begin the process of the things they need. We get them on foodshare, so it doesn’t cost us so much, they each have their own foodshare. There are three apartments and they each have their own apartment. They do their own cooking, cleaning and they watch their own children. But one of the things is that it’s a community and it’s the best community that you’ll ever find. If one of them needs a babysitter, they’ll babysit. If one of them needs a ride, another will give them a ride. It’s everybody’s responsibility to keep the shelter clean, so they work really hard on that.”
“We’ve been very successful at the goal setting where we look at the job opportunities, your children’s mental health, your children’s schooling, mom’s mental health, budgeting is a big one and any kind of counseling they might need, we help them find. Catholic Charities is our overall entity. We are a Catholic Charities Program. So, Catholic Charities itself has many, many programs to help. They are in La Crosse, Wausau and Eau Claire and now in the little town of Loyal! When we first started, we asked Catholic Charities if they would work with us on this because they have the 501(3)(c), they have the insurance and they have the ability to really work with all of this. So, we were really pleased when they said yes.”
“Just because it’s Catholic Charities, doesn’t mean everything is Catholic. I firmly believe that people see your faith by how you live, not by what you preach, so we’re not a preachy organization! We get into the goals, we get into the jobs and we help them get their cars. All those kind of things that are so important. Within a year, some have been in less, some have been in a little more, we don’t set an exact date, but they have to be ready to fly. One of ours left too soon, flew away to soon as we say, and she’s struggling. But they are our families. They’re the House of Mercy’s families forever, as long as they want to be apart of it. So, if they’re struggling and they need a food box, we’ll bring them food. If they need some mentoring, if they just need to talk, they can come back to the House of Mercy anytime they want and we’re still a family.”
“So, Clark County has just done an awesome job. I’m hoping that someday we’ll have more House of Mercys because since it’s a beyond shelter and they can stay longer, the amount of families we can help isn’t as many as I’d like to see, but, as the old saying goes, if you help one starfish at a time, we’ve helped 32 children have a better life. And we want to teach them that life isn’t terrible. The children don’t even seem to know that they’re in a homeless shelter. They’re home. They’re content. They’re happy. They run around they’re fine. So, that’s really important. We couldn’t be happier with the support. Clark County has just been fantastic!”
Judy then explained the 2nd Chances Thrift Store, which opened on the last Saturday of April.
“We call it 2nd Chances because that’s what we have at the House of Mercy. We call our program 2nd Chances for Families, so, when it came to the name of the thrift store, there was no other name but 2nd Chances. Back in Burlington, Wisconsin, we had a thrift store that we incorporated, so I knew from day one it could be very, very successful and we need to have more funding for things like car repair, and licenses and all those other things that cost money that we don’t actually have. And we also need to have a program where it gives the women who live in our shelters their dignity, respect, socialization and all this other stuff. So, what better place than a thrift store.”
“So, people have been giving us donations since we moved in. And we have saved them all or given them away as our first intent is if a baby needs clothes, you come in and get it free. If you need a kitchen table, you come in and get it free. That’s what are donations are for first. But we’ve had so many donations, that we can’t even give them all away. So, our second intent is that we sell them and use the money to help the families in the House of Mercy. So, we actually talked about this for two years now. And, of course, because it’s something new for Catholic Charities, they had to really think about this and if it could be successful. We talked about the wonderful thrift shop here in Neillsville and the hospital auxiliaries and they’ve been so helpful. Obviously you could see they made a lot of money to help the hospital, so that helped us.”
“So, two years later, the mayor at the time, Dave Williams in Loyal, helped us find a place and the landlady was so nice, they remodeled it for us and now we have this beautiful store on Main Street in Loyal called 2nd Chances. We did the ribbon cutting on Saturday (April 27th) and had a very successful day. It’s only open right now on Tuesday’s from 1pm-6pm, Friday’s from 1pm-6pm and Saturday’s from 8am-Noon. But, as we go along, we’ll be opening it many more hours. By summer we want it open most of the week.”
“So, we’re looking for volunteers because, obviously, we haven’t made all the money we’d like to yet! So we’d like to have 3 people in the store for the safety of our people and to make sure if one doesn’t show up, there’s still two. The ladies at the house have been just awesome. The donations, because the store is little, we ask people to bring their donations to the House of Mercy or the covenant at St. Anthony’s because we can store things there. And the women at the House of Mercy, which is our community, they are in charge of organizing the donations and bringing them into the house and things like that.”
“So, we thank everybody for the donations that they’ve given us. We do have to kinda frown on rummage sales because we don’t have the room for them and for somebody to bring in what’s left from a rummage sale is really hard for us, because we don’t have disposal and all those things. So, we appreciate people’s good things, but we have to frown on rummage sales. There are things we can’t take. We can’t take car seats because there is a limit on how long you can have them. And we’re not taking microwaves, televisions and computers because we can’t afford to dispose of them if they don’t sell. We have a story manager name Julie Denk and she’s done a wonderful job with the volunteers. The volunteers from the churches have come in and done a wonderful job, so they’re really helping us too.”
Judy ended our interview by explaining that those that end up at the House of Mercy deserve our compassion and are just looking for that 2nd chance.
“We just want people to know that the House of Mercy is a wonderful place. We still all making mistakes because obviously there is some past there, but they are trying really hard for those second chances and to change their lives. We appreciate people supporting them and, of course, we need support for our 2nd Chances thrift store and it’s really fun to come there, so everybody should!”
The House of Mercy and 2nd Chances Thrift Store is always looking for volunteers and donations.
Feel free to contact us with questions and/or comments.