Women Displaced As Fire Destroys Hananiah House

On Wednesday, March 8th, the beloved Nashville, TN-based Hananiah House was destroyed by a fire. Thankfully, the brave women who live there made it out safely and no one was hurt, however, they lost everything and have also been displaced from their home.

For many of those who are new to Hananiah House, we are a non-denominational faith-based nonprofit program which provides safe, stable, and caring transitional housing for woman who have been incarcerated. Our mission is to provide job training, counseling and daily support that empowers our women to heal from trauma and build a positive future for themselves and their families. We provide our website and information below.

There are several issues at play right now that require an immediate influx of funds for which this GoFundMe account will be directly applied:

Immediate Housing Needs. We need to quickly flip a small apartment on the HH property from its current use as an office/overnight staff living quarters to a new apartment home for these women to live in while the main house is remediated and rebuilt.

This will require the purchase of everything from new beds, a modest sofa, new bedding, new dressers, to curtains and window dressings as there are currently no window coverings.

We may also need to hire professionals to help with minor things like electrical, plumbing, and carpentry.

Clothing and Personal Items. As one can imagine, these women have lost all of what minimal precious personal belongings they had. Although we always appreciate clothing donations, in times like these, money simply is much more helpful. Here is why – many of these women have been in prison for several years and have lost their sense of personal identity and autonomy in the process. When they come to us at HH, we work with community partners to help them pick out a new wardrobe of clothing from which they get to choose what they feel reflects their own style and sense of independence. This empowers our women to obtain jobs, and excel at them, and generally start the process of building up their own self esteem. Then, they use the money they earn in their jobs to decorate their rooms the way they like and put their personal stamp on their spaces – this gives them a sense of belonging and independence. That is why we are asking for financial donations for these women’s replacement of clothing and personal items.

Long-Term Housing Needs. Remediation and rebuild on the home could take a year. With this in mind, we also recognize it may not be ideal for the women to live in HH office/apartment for more than 3-4 months. Notwithstanding, we need to also consider opportunities for a one-year lease in a 3 to 4 bed/bath home in the far Eastern region of Davidson County / Donelson / BNA Airport vicinity. (Any home must be in this area to accommodate our women’s jobs.) We do have allotted funding for monthly rent, but if (and this is a big “if”) we can even find a private property owner willing to lease the property to our women via the HH organization, we may need supplemental funding to help with monthly rent. If you know of any property rental opportunities, please consider reaching out to us through our website (https://www.hananiah.house/about-us).

Any help provided from the heart is appreciated for these inspiring and strong women and the House they call Home. No donation is too small. Every outreach to them is a sign to them that they are not alone, they are loved, they are cherished. Thank you so much for taking the time to read this and for considering the lives of these wonderful women.

Please know that we are keeping the names and faces of our women anonymous for their safety and privacy but do know that every single dollar will benefit them directly. We will provide updates to this site in honor of everyone’s generous provisions. Please also see our Hananiah House Facebook page:

https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100082244274969.

Please also visit our website at https://www.hananiah.house/.