KANSAS CITY, Mo. —
Healing House is asking for help after vandals caused tens of thousands of dollars worth of damage to one of their construction sites.
The project is called Erin’s House. When it’s finished, it will give up to 16 homeless moms and children a place to live, but thieves pushed that date back.
The vandals broke into the house, which is currently under construction, and got away with about $200 worth of copper wiring. They also damaged window screens and kicked in the front door.
“This was a huge setback for us,” Healing House founder Bobbi-Jo Reed said. “We’re going to have to pay for it all over again. And I don’t know how that’s going to happen, but God does.”
Healing House is looking at about $50,000 worth of repairs. But they said the biggest loss is for the families who now have to wait for a home to move into.
They were hoping to open the house in early fall. Now, they’re just hoping to get families in before Christmas.
“We’ll get in here as soon as we can because those women need a safe place to be and their children do, too,” Reed said. “This house will be where a mother can come in with their child. It will be a therapeutic community because we know kids that have lived around addiction have experienced trauma.”
The vandals broke into the house, which is currently under construction, and got away with about $200 worth of copper wiring. They also damaged window screens and kicked in the front door.
“This was a huge setback for us,” Healing House founder Bobbi-Jo Reed said. “We’re going to have to pay for it all over again. And I don’t know how that’s going to happen, but God does.”
Healing House is looking at about $50,000 worth of repairs. But they said the biggest loss is for the families who now have to wait for a home to move into.
They were hoping to open the house in early fall. Now, they’re just hoping to get families in before Christmas.
“We’ll get in here as soon as we can because those women need a safe place to be and their children do, too,” Reed said. “This house will be where a mother can come in with their child. It will be a therapeutic community because we know kids that have lived around addiction have experienced trauma.”
The project is in honor of Erin Langhofer. The 25-year-old died after being hit by a stray bullet at a First Fridays in the Crossroads in 2019.
“It’s going to be a really cool tribute to Erin and her work for generations to come,” her father, Tom Langhofer, said. “This is going to be a house that will be here for many, many years and will just serve many, many families.”
Before she died, Erin Langhofer worked as a domestic violence counselor. Her father said the people who will live in this house are people she likely would have worked with.
“It was a call that she got to help people that were less fortunate,” he said. “If there’s something we can do to continue her work, that’s our mission.”
That makes the overnight work of vandals even more frustrating, but it just gives them even more motive to see it through.
“It was very saddening and very maddening and the irony of it all is that the very people that are doing the vandalism to this house most likely are the very people that could benefit from Healing House,” Tom Langhofer said. “We’re just going to stay true. We’re going to keep moving forward. And it’s not going to stop us. It’s just not going to stop us.”
Titan Security donated a surveillance system to the construction site to hopefully deter any more setbacks.
If you want to help, you can donate to Erin’s House on their website.
