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Realizing the Dream every day!

Miracles Happen Every Day!

This month, we are highlighting the Bray Recovery Home for Men.  We are very proud of the work being done in the City of Highland Park and we celebrate our surrounding community for your support!

DRP Opens Bray Home for Men
Brings Needed Transitional Housing to Highland Park

Drivers traveling north on M-10 – or as the locals call it – John C. Lodge Freeway, see the Bray Home for Recovery Men as a bright spot among broken windows and burned buildings. Those headed south view it rising above the railings as a beacon of light that can’t be hidden.

Both views are just what DRP officials hoped to create when they selected the location to provide temporary housing to men seeking to re-enter society while in early stages of recovery. The previously abandoned home is in one of Highland Park’s most impoverished neighborhoods.

The two-story frame home at 400 Cortland St. is named in honor of the late Allan Bray, a co- founder of DRP. Wayne County officials gifted the property to the non-profit group in order to return it to the tax rolls.

DRP President and Chief Executive Andre L. Johnson hopes to obtain a second home nearby to provide transitional housing for women. “I envision rebuilding Highland Park’s neighborhoods, one house at a time,” Mr. Johnson said. “The public needs to see that persons in recovery can be productive neighbors and seek the same quality of life we all want.”

The Bray Home was renovated by a contracting team of men in recovery and boasts one of the most well manicured lawns on the block complete with shrubberies and flowers. The newly installed aluminum siding gives only a hint of the work done on the inside of the home.

In the front room, the earth-toned furniture and accessories compliment the wheat-colored walls that convey a sense of warmth and stability. In the dining room, subdued blue walls offer a calming backdrop against which to host the residents’ daily dining experience where food – purchased and prepared by the men – adds color, flavor and an atmosphere of family.

The brightly painted kitchen contains modern equipment, new cabinets, and plenty of storage space for healthy food items that at one time seemed unnecessary to the residents who rarely ate regular meals to sustain their own lives.

A trip to the second floor finds three well kept bedrooms. House Manager Frank Jones – 23 years clean – offers guidance in the zero-tolerance program, which allows the men to remain in the home for two years.

Mr. Jones said, “We want the brothers to know they can live drug-free but it comes at a price: dedication, honesty, and hard work.”