Lansing, Iowa native Michael Rea and his wife Brandy attended a fund-raising meeting in La Crosse on Monday, and announced they have already donated a million dollars to the Main Street housing project. The Reas live in the Kansas City area, and they head a foundation that helps families with special needs, mostly in that metro region. They have a teenage son with special needs, and Brandy Rea says her interest in the Haven arises from concerns about how to help him live more independently.
“What’s going to happen to our son, if something happens to us,” she asks, saying that many parents have the same concern for their special needs children. “To be able to help find a resolution to that concern, to help solve that problem in a big way is another reason we’re so excited and grateful to be a part of this project.”
The “Haven for Special People” group has joined with Couleecap in La Crosse to work on developing the 70 housing units that will be located at Haven on Main. Hetti Brown, the executive director of Couleecap, says this project is a “unique development” in the La Crosse area. “There is currently nothing of this kind in this community, where there is an independent living option for adults with disabilities.”
Close to $4 million in donations has already been raised for the housing complex. Ground will be broken for the Haven in August or September.
Lansing native Michael Rea and his wife Brandy are giving $1 million to the Haven project, to help kids who are like their teenage son.