We have our next house after 4 months of looking. It was not what we wanted -a large house that would accommodate 12 women- but it may have been what we needed - a 12 unit apartment complex. We have been talking for a year or so about helping people with Children, and now it is a reality.

     The apartments are structured with 6 units on each side of the property, a rectangle shape and parking in the middle. We are thinking of moving the parking to the front of the building and putting a courtyard in the middle with maybe a small clubhouse at the rear of the property.   We are going to use 1 side (6 units) for single women, the other side (6 units) in time, for couples or women with children.   Right now we have to slowly get the current residents of the units out and replace them with recovering alcoholics and addicts, this will take time. We have 1 apt. cleaned & ready and we are starting to furnish it. Another one will be available in a week and another one in two weeks. The side for single women should be full of our people in 4 to 6 months but there is much more to do. We have learned from experience at our Wahsatch House (which is a house with five attached apartments) how much more work this is than a single large house. It has taken two years to get Wahsatch House stable and working properly. We had to knock holes in walls to join apartments & build bedrooms where kitchens were. In order to promote unity in the house, we want to eliminate places to hide away and promote togetherness, there has to be balance and the main key ingredient -the managers. PROMISE PLACE could take up to two years to stabilize.
    PROMISE PLACE is so far the best name we have come up with; we encourage others to submit a name. It must begin with P because we name houses after their street and we already have a house on this same street - Prairie Road. Please send us your name suggestions. The other six units will slowly (over the next year) become vacant. This is where we use our God to show us what to do with it. We have an addicted couple (husband is in Pine House and wife is in Platte House) that I have promised an apartment on this side if they stay clean and sober for six months. We have quite a few women who come through wanting to be reunited with their children. There is the cost involved & a strong need for a clean and sober living community for them to have a chance in the timeline DHS wants to reunite.

    This brings me to a place of sincerest and humblest gratitude for all the people who have made this possible. The rent on this building is below market so we can afford it and the donations have helped so much! -washers, dryers, beds, cooking utensils and some additional furniture. I know we will need more- twin mattress sets, and bedding (probably about 15, no other size will work has to be twin), dressers, nightstands, dishes, pots and pans, lamps, bookshelves, and many other things that will make these apartments home for these women.

    Because this page is about the next house and Promise Place is this house not next, I will give a clue about what I believe will be our next house- ‘God willing because he directs us‘.   It will be in a state other than Colorado where Valley Hope has a treatment center, they are such a big asset to us. People who come from Valley treatment seem to have a better chance than people we get from other programs so we want to expand into states where Valley Hope has treatment centers.