House of Hope serves those facing homelessness or addiction in the Pee Dee
By Jodi Helmer
Walk with House of Hope CEO Bryan Braddock on a newly acquired 240-acre property called the Woods at Black Creek off Freight Road in Florence, and he points to the future site of zip lines, a par 3 golf course and glamping sites to help fund the House of Hope ministry.
While excited about this most recent venture, Bryan tells the story of a man who spent three decades in prison before entering the House of Hope Life recovery program. This is where he received the love, Christian discipleship, life-skills training and community support that enabled him to get a job, buy a home, get engaged and turn his life around.
Bryan also talks about the young couple who pulled up to House of Hope in a battered old car, pregnant and battling addiction with no place to go. House of Hope provided housing, addiction recovery services and ministry. The couple later got married, found work and built a happy family. They now own a successful painting company and serve faithfully with the addictions program at their church, helping others along the path they, too, have walked.
“At the shelter, we don’t turn anyone away,” Bryan says. “Depending on the situation, it could be life or death; it’s the difference between hope and hopelessness.”
House of Hope has changed lives since 1990. Jean and Bill Fryar started the organization after noticing a line of people needing a place to spend the night at the homeless shelter in their hometown of Florence. The couple “stepped out in faith with some credit cards,” Bryan says, and bought an old school building to start New Life Rescue Ministry.
“They drew the attention of a local Sunday school class at First Baptist Church in Florence, and that class became the board of directors,” Bryan says. “They got (nonprofit) status and began to formulate what became Hope House of the Pee Dee.”
In 1996, under the leadership of Lucy T. Davis, House of Hope built a new facility to serve women and children. For 20 years, men, women and children were served with the two transitional housing facilities.
In 2016, House of Hope expanded to include the Courtney McGinnis Graham Shelter, a facility that provides emergency shelter for men, women and children for up to 30 days. It was a giant step forward for the organization but still not sufficient to meet the needs of the local unhoused community.
Dogwood trees are planted near this chapel in the woods in memory of those who have died from addiction. Contact House of Hope to donate or plant a tree.
Fundraising is underway for a community day center. The proposed 5,000-squarefoot building on Church Street will house Whosoever Church and the House of Hope day center, including a warming station, cooling station, showers, food, lockers, laundry room and internet access.
The vision is to create a friendly place of refuge during storms, heat waves and cold snaps or just a regular day that a person facing homelessness wants to avoid the general public. The hope is to have caseworkers and partner agencies on-site to provide individual case management to help people experiencing homelessness find a path off the streets.
To date, the project has secured $750,000 to build the day center. Fundraising is underway to cover the remaining costs. Homelessness doesn’t discriminate.
Every year, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development determines the number of unhoused people nationwide. In 2023, more than 650,000 people experienced homelessness in a single night—a 12% increase over 2022—due to myriad factors, from addiction and domestic violence to sex trafficking and job loss.
There are more than 500 unhoused residents in the Pee Dee region. House of Hope provides emergency shelter for up to 1,500 people a year, including an estimated 60 new homeless guests every month.
Often, Bryan notes, it’s difficult to tell who is homeless. Some are couch surfing, while others are sleeping in cars.
“Sure, there is the stereotypical person that you’re going to see on the corner, but— for the most part—people don’t want you to know that they’re homeless,” he says.
“But homelessness doesn’t discriminate.”
Those who have sought emergency shelter at House of Hope include men and women, college graduates, teachers and professionals. For most, Bryan says, it wasn’t a single instance or circumstance that led to homelessness. It was a combination of two or three things in a short time from which they could not recover.
A Holistic Approach to Homelessness
Police departments, hospitals, churches and other shelters are the main sources of referrals to the shelter, but some guests find House of Hope through an internet search or word of mouth. It’s not uncommon for people to show up with nothing more than the clothes on their backs.
Unlike shelters requiring identification, House of Hope offers emergency shelter to everyone who comes through its doors.
Bryan notes women who are victims of trafficking often lack ID because, without a driver’s license, it’s impossible to get a hotel room, rental car, food stamps or other assistance that would allow them to escape. “It’s a low barrier to entry,” he says.
“We don’t turn anyone away.”
But Bryan knows having a place to sleep won’t solve homelessness in the Pee Dee region.
“If you just put someone in a house, they’re not homeless anymore,” he says.
“But without some behavior modification or addressing some of the issues in their life, they’ll end up right back in the same situation.”
To encourage a successful transition out of homelessness, House of Hope offers emergency and transitional housing, meals, addiction recovery programs, counseling and mentorship.
House of Hope is a Christian nonprofit, and Bible studies and church attendance are part of the program. Bryan calls it a holistic approach to addressing homelessness.
The programming is free, but residents who receive money from a job, disability
or unemployment must pay one-third of their income in program fees, while saving one-third of their income and covering living expenses with the remainder. Bryan calls this policy, “very important in terms of participating in their own recovery.”
In 2020, House of Hope took another giant step and opened HOPE Village, a community of 24 240-square-foot tiny homes.
Bryan compares the tiny homes to hotel rooms: Each home has bunk beds, a kitchenette and a bathroom for a woman and her children. The village also includes amenities: a day center, playground and gardens. Women and children can live in the homes for up to two years while engaged in programming designed to address the root causes of their homelessness.
“(Before HOPE Village), we were having a hard time getting women with children to the point where they had enough money to transition successfully,” Bryan says. “The tiny homes offered a small representation of the lives that we hoped for them (and) allowed them to start dreaming a little bit. It meets their immediate needs and makes them think, ‘I could have more.’”
Hope for the Future
Even with holistic programming, Bryan understands the biggest obstacle to securing housing sometimes comes down to dollars and cents. Affordable housing is a significant issue in the Pee Dee.
“We don’t address (affordable housing) right now,” he says. “We’ve worked to help individuals attain income to afford housing. That’s a lot easier for a single man looking for an apartment, but it’s a lot more difficult for a mother with one, two or three children.”
To address the issue, House of Hope bought 240 acres of land with the intent to create affordable housing solutions. Bryan is raising funds to turn the property into a gated community where residents can buy mobile tiny homes and lease space. His goal is to begin welcoming residents in the next 12 to 18 months.
The ministry was gifted an adjacent 100-acre property. This is where the dream of zip lines, glamping sites, kayaking, hiking and a par 3 golf course come into the conversation. Bryan hopes to partner with a management company to create a family-friendly adventure and recreation park open to the public, with the generated funds helping offset the cost of services provided to people experiencing homelessness.
The House of Hope ministry doesn’t receive state or federal funding. This new venture could provide a revenue source for the growth and sustainability of the ministry for years to come.
In the meantime, House of Hope relies on the support of grants and donations from churches, businesses—including MPD Electric Cooperative—and individual donors to provide financial support for its mission.
“We have always attempted to do things at a level that exceeds people’s expectations,” Bryan says. “We’re not just trying to put someone in a bed for 30 days; we’re trying to help them get a job and transportation and their own house. As we strive to do more and have more of an impact on the lives of the people that we serve, it becomes more and more difficult to achieve.”
Bryan says the 68 employees who provide 24/7/365 care often deal with compassion fatigue but believe in the mission wholeheartedly. Several employees are previous residents of the House of Hope programs.
“We have a saying around here that ‘Changed lives change lives,’” Bryan says. “From a Christian perspective, the Bible says the two greatest laws are to love the Lord, thy God, with all thy heart and love thy neighbor as thyself and to take care of the widows and the orphans. It’s a religious principle and a moral society obligation to look after those in need.”