Generosity Fuels Rebuild of New Hope Group Home
For more than a year, Adventor Trye has avoided the area around Ensign Avenue N in New Hope. It’s the location where a group home burned on June 2, 2019 and Trye pulled a man out of the home who would not come on his own. Trye still has scars from the incident and it still bothers him to think about it.
However, he’s happy to be back at the location for the groundbreaking of a new group home for people with disabilities.
“This is my second time coming here after the incident,” said Trye. “It makes me feel happy that life was saved, because we have a priority in life to save others. If you see a life saved, be thankful to God.”
The staff from Opportunity Partners, who operated the home, are grateful to Trye.
Opportunity Partners and Denali Custom Homes begin rebuilding a group home on Ensign Avenue in New Hope. The previous home was destroyed by fire in June 2019.
“We lost the house, but so grateful that Adventor was there and knew what to do,” said Bill Schultz, President and CEO of Opportunity Partners.
Breaking Ground on a New Home for Opportunity Partners
Schultz is also grateful to be participating in the groundbreaking.
“It’s super exciting. We weren’t sure this was going to be able to happen,” said Schultz. “With COVID, we had to shut down. We lost a lot of revenue and didn’t think we would be able to do the project, but generosity made it all feasible.”
Generosity came by way of Denali Custom Homes and its subcontractors. The company put an article in a magazine about developing spaces for children with special needs and spaces for parents as children grow older. Schultz and Opportunity Partners saw the article and approached Denali Custom Homes about helping rebuild the home on Ensign Avenue.
“I myself have an adult child with special needs, so it was close to my heart,” said David Bieker, Denali’s Founder and President. “So they came to the office and said will you think about it? And I said, no we’ll do it.”
Bieker was also on hand for the groundbreaking as construction kicked off on Tuesday. The four-bedroom home will allow people to age in place and it should be finished in about six months. The three men who were displaced by the June 2019 fire have moved to another group home in Robbinsdale. They will stay in that home. Another group will be able to live at the home on Ensign, as there is a need for homes for adults with disabilities.
“It’s a real challenge in our community and many communities across the country,” said Bieker. “As kids with special needs turn into adults, there are very few places for them to go and so, when we lose a place it’s important to build again.”
