Ottawa’s Hope House is undergoing two big changes as 2021 comes to a close, and both are bittersweet in their own ways: earlier this fall, longtime director and coordinator Mary Lois Yates announced her retirement, and in less than a month’s time, Hope House will be moving to a new location after over 30 years on Walnut Street.
Yates has been a part of Hope House since it began in 1990. According to Interim Director Michelle Graf, the churches in Ottawa’s Ministerial Association decided the city needed a place for those who may be in need of food and clothing. They used an old church as their headquarters and called the organization Hope House in honor of the feeling they wished to bring to the community. Today, Hope House supplies those in need in Franklin County with everything from gas vouchers to rent and utility assistance. Just about everything at Hope House is either donated or funded by donations, says Graf. “We are all community-supported. Occasionally we’ll get a grant from Harvesters, but we really are all community-supported through the different churches and individuals in Ottawa, so it’s truly a community service.”
The Franklin County community has always been extremely supportive of Hope House, Graf aid, and she suspects that’s due in part to Mary Lois Yates’ charming nature. “Pretty much everyone in the community, when they think of Hope House, they think Mary Lois Yates. I think the legacy she left is that Hope House will always stay true to its mission to help anyone in Franklin County who needs help. And she always made sure that that was our focus and doing it in a passionate way.” One of Yates’ talents was reassuring clients, many of whom felt embarrassed to be asking for help. “It’s hard for people to admit that they need help, and [Yates] would greet the clients, know them by name, know their family… she made it personal, and I think that’s something we want to try to maintain,” Graf said.
Although everyone is sad to see her go, Graf is sure Mary Lois Yates will stay involved with Hope House in some way in the future. Her departure is the beginning of a new era for Hope House, complete with a new location. Using funds from a donation by former state senator Wint Winter and his wife Nancy, Hope House was able to purchase a building at 205 W. 17th Street and has been working on renovating it over the past few months. The new building should be operating by November 1, and an open house for the public is scheduled for October 29 from 11 to 2 pm. Once everything is settled in the new building, Hope House is anticipating adding showers to the new facility through a grant from the Ottawa Elks Foundation.
After over 30 years, there’s still a need for places like Hope House in Franklin County, and Hope House will be there for as long as people need it to be, Graf said. Although it was started by a group of churches, Hope House clients do not need to be Christian or belong to any religion to receive its services. But for some of Hope House’s employees, they believe their work is part of a higher calling. “There’s a lot of poverty in Franklin County, and we feel like we’re doing God’s work,” Graf said. “We also believe you can’t say ‘God loves you, go home hungry,’ or ‘go home without clothes to wear.’ It’s not just doing lip service to ‘Hey, God loves all of us,’ like, yeah, He does, and He wants us as a community to show that love through tangible ways.”
Hope House’s services are available to all Franklin County residents, no questions asked. For more information, visit hopehouseottawa.org.
https://www.ottawaherald.com/story/news/2021/10/18/hope-house-says-goodbye-icon-prepares-big-changes/8438205002/