Hilbert "Bert" Herrera: Part Three
(3/4) “In order to turn this idea of a home for men experiencing homelessness into a reality, we needed to find a property. The Land Bank was willing to donate a property, but they were pretty damaged and we didn't have funding to fix them up.
Nobody would budge on the property until Donna Hughes Clarke from the Emmaus House-Saginaw stepped in and gave us a house.
It needed work, and I’ve done about 80 percent of the work myself. I've reached out to volunteers, but the response has been minimal. But that’s okay. It makes me feel good regardless that I'm making a difference within my own project. I think God was preparing me for this because I'm skilled in multiple trades myself, so it's all coming together.
I put all new drywall on this whole side because this was divided here. I took this wall out and converted it. All this was damaged as far as water damage, and we had to replace all this drywall down the lower section. We tore out the flooring and so forth.
I had my full-time job and would come over during my free time to work at the house. Little by little, I’m just trying to do as much as I can without touching the little bit of savings we had put away. We've come a long way and are about ready to paint. We have donations coming in, too. We're going to get brand new windows, flooring and a fence donated. We are also going to get a shed back there and new asphalt pavement.
The Well of Saginaw is going to be a multi-path recovery program for men who are 18 and above. When we say multi-path, that means that you get to choose what path you want to pursue for your personal recovery, whether that is faith, education, a 12-step program, or something else.
Any type of direction that is positive, we're going to support it. We're not going to shove a program down your throat that you don't want to follow. If we see that it's working for you, we're going to support you, but you have to be on top of it on a daily basis.
This is a program of recovery – real success and recovery. You have to bring the willingness when you walk in that door. If you don’t, we’re going to make you find that willingness and help you with that. But you have to show growth, even if it’s minimal. We want to see the incremental growth that you're trying. The good thing is that we're going to have people who have lived through similar experiences like myself here. I'm bringing in people to work here that have the experience and can meet these guys where they are at and speak the same language. We will have therapists and doctors, but that will be a separate issue, depending on each case.
We are starting off with 10 men in this house. What I mean by ‘this house’ is we're looking forward to expanding. This is our home base for now, our launch pad. We are hoping and praying that things work out here and we can expand and create another house like The Well after a while.”
– Hilbert (Bert) Herrera, The Well Saginaw Men's Shelter
Bert Herrera is the Executive Director of a new shelter for men opening in 2023 called The Well. Assisted by The Emmaus House and The Mustard Seed Shelter. You can help The Well by donating to its GoFundMe at http://bit.ly/3UL6YcB or by attending its first fundraiser, “5 Men Who Can Cook”, held at the Union Civica Mexicana on November 20th at 2PM. Tickets are $20 and can be obtained by calling 989-270-7126.
For more information about The Well or to ask how you can help, contact Bert at hilbertherrera70@gmail.com.
hilbertherrera70@gmail.com.