MACOMB COUNTY, Mich. – A Macomb County nonprofit needs your help keeping its doors open at a new location.
Macomb Foster Closet has been in the Macomb County Family Resource Center, in a former Rose Street school in Mount Clemens, for the last 10 years.
In January, the nonprofit was notified that its lease with the county and other organizations that use the building wouldn’t be renewed.
Macomb Foster Closet doesn’t want to wait to see what Mount Clemens School District, which owns the building, will do next.
The nonprofit made a down payment on another building about a mile away but needs the community’s help to get the rest.
“If this place wasn’t here, I don’t know what I would do,” said the former foster mom of four, Cheryl Brown.
Brown doesn’t like to think about a future without Macomb Foster Closet. The closet allows foster families to shop for free clothing, sports gear, hygiene products, and food.
Brown said the organization was the first place she called when her family lost everything in a fire in December 2022.
“If this building wasn’t here if this organization didn’t have somewhere to be, it would have been hard for us to find something else,” Brown said. “So this (Macomb Foster Closet) means a lot not just to me but to my children and for foster kids who go into the system suddenly and parents who have to all of a sudden get something.”
President of the nonprofit, Kevin McAlpine, likes to say they’re in the dignity business.
“We help to restore dignity for children in foster care,” McAlpine said.
McAlpine believes that work should continue once their lease is up, so they jumped on the opportunity when a building on South Main Street in Mount Clemens became available.
“One of the advantages that nonprofits have is that we don’t pay property taxes if you own a building,” McAlpine said. “If you don’t own your own building, we sort of have to pay the property taxes indirectly through the rent payments. It’s actually cheaper for us to buy the building instead of leasing it. The owner has been incredible in allowing us to purchase it on a land contract.”
Macomb Foster Closet already has a purchasing agreement, made a down payment, and needs a quarter million dollars by the end of June to move forward. And hope that the community can help raise enough for them to pay the building off.
“The building is about $700,000, and we’re going to need to put in about $200,000,” McAlpine said. “The building is a great building, but it needs a little love and carpeting, paint, some electrical work, some lighting, and some HVAC repairs for that sort of initial move-in cost.”
Metro Detroit churches and schools have already started fundraising and helped cover the down payment.
Volunteers said they also plan to apply for a state grant.
To donate and learn more information, click here.