House of Hope reopens to help Kelowna women in need

There’s renewed hope for women on the streets of Kelowna as a safe house dedicated to helping some of the most vulnerable has now reopened.

READ MORE: Fundraising underway to reopen House of H.O.P.E.

The not-for-profit House of H.O.P.E. closed two years ago for financial reasons but thanks to a rigorous fundraising push, enough money has been raised to reopen it, at least for the time being.

The house is run by non-profit group H.O.P.E. Outreach, a trained group of volunteers helping exploited women.

“It broke my heart to close it to begin with and I’ve seen our women suffering since,” H.O.P.E Outreach founder Angie Lohr said. “I’ve had hundreds of calls in the last two years asking ‘when are you opening, when are you opening?'”

Half of the house is fully operational, but the finishing touches are still being made to the other half of the home. The entire house is expected to be open in May.

Five of the 10 beds are now available and one woman has moved in already.

All the furniture in the home has been donated, but there’s still a long list of items the non-profit is still looking for. If you want to donate you can view a list of those item here.

But the outreach housing program is far from out of the woods yet. Lohr has applied for numerous grants, but expects she will need at least another $20,000 to keep the house open for just this year.

Even if the house only opens for a year or less, Lohr said it will still be worth it.

“I’ve seen so much change go on when we had the house. I just can’t not offer it to them,” Lohr said.