DCHA partners with A Wider Circle to makeover houses for Home Reimagined

DCHA’s Office of Resident Services (ORS) contributed to the makeovers of three homes in DC on May 8 as part of Home Reimagined: A One Day Home Makeover Event, hosted by nonprofit A Wider Circle with support from sponsors including Bozzuto Group.

The annual event brings together volunteers and sponsors, including professional interior designers, to transform homes around the region.  The one-day event that transforms an unfurnished or sparsely furnished living space into a fully furnished, professionally designed and functional home.  On May 8, volunteers transformed a total of 35 units, including 12 that are home to DCHA’s Housing Choice Voucher Program (HCVP) families.

“I want people to see ORS as the sunshine of DCHA,” said Eboni Borden, Family Self-Sufficiency Coordinator in ORS. She says by volunteering at events like these, the ORS team is able to truly connect with public housing residents and voucher families and “bring light and positivity” to their lives.

The event was hosted by A Wider Circle, a nonprofit that strives to advance equity and address the root causes of poverty in the greater D.C. region through material donations, neighborhood partnerships, career support and advocacy efforts. One of the areas that the organization specializes in is the issue of furniture poverty. Furniture poverty is the inability to access or afford to maintain the basic furniture and appliances that provide a household with a decent quality of life.

A Wider Circle has been serving those in furniture poverty for more than 20 years through their center located in Silver Spring, Md. and their Ward 8 Hub in D.C. Its core program provides home furnishings to over 5,000 individuals and families each year completely free of charge.

The Home Reimagined makeovers provide items like mattresses, dining tables and chairs, couches, lamps and dressers, along with additional items to give living spaces flair, such as rugs, wall ornaments and decorative cushions.

When returning to their reimagined homes at the end of the day, the residents of each home were greeted with a handwritten note and a gift basket from DCHA staff volunteers to commemorate the makeover. After a long day of volunteering at a resident event like this, Borden emphasizes that “their smiles are the biggest reward.”