GREENFIELD, Mass. (AP) - The door of a Greenfield Gardens apartment swung open, and out shot 4-year-old Miracal Knox. She bolted toward the back of the delivery truck and trailer that had just backed into the parking space in front of the residence. Then she stopped, and threw her arms up in the air before shouting “It’s here!”
As she broke into excited dance on the apartment’s front lawn, her mother, Mikel Clark, emerged from the house in time to see the door of the trailer slide open, revealing an array of cardboard boxes. “All right, all right. Calm yourself down,” she told her daughter, but a smile began to cross her own face, belying her stern demeanor.
For Clark and Knox, who for half a year until November called a small room at the Days Inn their home, those boxes represented a new chapter in their lives. They were filled with furniture, donated by Atlantic Furniture of South Deerfield, to help families transitioning from life in the hotels to a more permanent living arrangement furnish their apartments.
Charity Day, of the Franklin Regional Housing Authority, said the company decided to donate $40,000 worth of hardwood furniture to the nonprofit, which works to expand housing opportunities in Franklin County. The organization has been heavily involved in finding housing for the homeless families who had been placed in Greenfield hotels by the state.
“Atlantic Furniture wanted to help out, and they had some returns, or factory seconds that they can’t send out to clients. So, they decided to donate them to the families,” Day said. “They wanted it to go to people who could use it.”
Knox said she is originally from Chicopee, but was living on a fixed income and couldn’t afford to pay the rent at her apartment. She moved to Philadelphia, but didn’t want to raise her children there. So, she came to Greenfield and after briefly renting a room of a house, found herself living in the hotel.
While living there, she said, she used any money she made to stockpile supplies with plans of finding an affordable apartment.
“Lots of the time, all the state will give you is a bed, so I saved money to get stuff for an apartment,” she said. “I’m so grateful and appreciative of this. There’s a stigma (when you’re homeless) and it’s hard to get the stuff you need, so it’s nice to see there’s still people who care, the way the world is right now.”
On a Friday afternoon, Day and employees from ServiceNet, which provides case work for the hotel families and will put some of the furniture into storage for future distribution, gathered at Atlantic’s warehouse on Greenfield Road in Deerfield to load a series of trucks and trailers.
“As a local family business, we’re committed to giving back to the community and strive to help local families,” said owner Mark Valone.
Day said the population of homeless families that reside in either the Days Inn or Quality Inn on Mohawk Trail has been dropping consistently since last summer, down from a high of around 86 in November to 35 today. She said about half of the families who have been able to move out of the hotels have found permanent living arrangements in Franklin County and half have moved elsewhere to be closer to home or for a job opportunity.
Each family will be eligible to receive up to $1,000 worth of furniture upon moving out, Day said. Generally, that will cover a couple of dressers and a night stand, or some bedding, she said. Families that have more than six members can apply for a waiver to receive more.
“The majority of these families had to get rid of everything they owned when they came to the hotel, so this is a fresh start for them,” said Day.
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Information from: The (Greenfield, Mass.) Recorder, https://www.recorder.com
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