Posted on Wed, Nov. 11, 2009
ON A NARROW street in the lower end of Frankford sat a rowhouse that looked like a cross between the Bates Motel in "Psycho" and a leftover set from "All in the Family."
The walls bore water stains. The first floor was wrapped in depressing dark wood paneling. The bedrooms were bare, the bathroom a nightmare.
But this weathered three-bedroom property - known simply as the Romain House - also served a noble purpose for much of the past two decades: as a place for homeless veterans to stay while they tried to get their lives back in order.
Although the vets were always grateful about the shelter and solace they found there, it was impossible to overlook the fact that the house was a decrepit mess.
"Every time you turn around, something else needs to be fixed," sighed Stan Fabiszewski, the vice president of the Pennsylvania American Legion Housing for Homeless Veterans Corp., which owns and manages the property.
The legion didn't have the kind of big bucks required to renovate the Romain House.
"We've mainly relied on donations for the things the house has needed over the years," noted Fabiszewski, 82.
They needed a miracle.
Luckily for the legion and the three vets who currently call the Romain House home, miracles sometimes come hand-delivered these days by networks like HGTV.
A team of 200 volunteers, led by HGTV host Carter Oosterhouse and designer Monica Pedersen, spent about a week in June reimagining and remodeling the house, on Romain Street near Womrath, as part of the network's annual "Change the World, Start at Home" community-revitalization campaign.
When the work was finished, the house looked like something out of a magazine spread or heartwarming TV special.
(A heartwarming special about the work done at the Romain House and another veterans' home in St. Louis, will air at 8 tonight on HGTV.)
"This is a godsend. I mean, just look at it," gushed Craig Chayney, 61, one of three veterans currently living at the Romain House.
Fabiszewski and residents Chayney, Tony Bailey and Lonnie Bowen sat together last week to discuss their favorite aspects of the transformed home.
Gone from the living room is the dark wood paneling and funky furniture from a generation (or two) ago.
The walls are now painted a bright, soothing yellow. A computer terminal is situated by the front window, near a plush, comfy couch. The vets raved about the bathroom, which is now airy and bright - a far cry from the moldy, tiled room that existed before. They fawned over new wood floors and a decidedly warm, modern kitchen.
"I went from being virtually homeless to living in a place as nice as this," said Chayney, a Vietnam vet who was staying at a shelter in Southwest Philadelphia before he landed at the Romain House during the summer.
Like so many other vets who have ended up homeless, Chayney and his roommates have winding stories of heartache and confusion that led them to the Romain House.
Fabiszewski said that when the American Legion first started offering transitional housing to vets in the 1980s, they thought the problem of homelessness "would be short-lived. We had no idea that it would be still be going on all these years later."
That once small problem has now grown into a full-blown epidemic. According to the Department of Veterans Affairs, more than 131,000 vets are homeless across the country, including about 450 in the Philadelphia area.
U.S. Sen. Arlen Specter planned on addressing the issue, with a panel of experts, at a 1 p.m. meeting today at the National Constitution Center.
"I've been concerned about the homeless problem for a long time," Specter said last night. "It's intolerable."
At the house, Bailey, 50, and Bowen, 64, talked about watching the reimagined house take shape. Both men had moved in a few months before HGTV set up shop, and can stay there for two years.
"I thank God. I mean, it's amazing," said Bailey, an Army veteran. Bailey said his favorite part of the renovation came when HGTV officials paraded him and Bowen in a convertible - with a police escort, no less - through the neighborhood, back to the house, where they were greeted by a group of teary-eyed volunteers.
Oosterhouse noted that countless people pulled together to aid the rebuilding effort, including local union contractors, electricians and plumbers, as well as several Iraq and Afghanistan veterans.
"It shows that there are people out there who really have an appreciation for veterans," he said.
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