Former bed and breakfast finds new purpose as temporary home for Ukrainian refugees

A former bed and breakfast in St. Jacobs that was vacant for the past three years will now serve as a temporary home for newly-arrived Ukrainian refugees, aiming to give them a safe and welcoming landing spot for the first two or three months after arrival.

Clint Rohr, a members of the Woolwich Healthy Community group, came up with the idea of repurposing the once-vacant house after hearing the news that Russia invaded Ukraine.

"I listened to president Zelensky one morning and he was just pleading for help and I was quite distressed," Rohr told CBC.

"I came out for a walk and I came walking up past this house and I looked at it. It was just like the house begged me, 'Use me! I can house these Ukrainians if you get them here!'"

After taking the idea back to the community group, work began to contact the property owner. Rohr said he agreed to lend the house to the resettlement group for up to a year. 

"I think [the owner] resonated strongly with our concept and felt it was part of what he might contribute to bringing relief to the distress many Ukranians are enduring these days," Rohr said.

Work began quickly to coordinate clean up, do minor renovations, collect donations and whatever families might need while using the space. 

Done with 'donated love'

The house had been vacant for quite some time and needed work, said Lorrie Martin and Jennifer Brown, two women who spearheaded the renovations. 

Martin and Brown said it was not hard to find people to volunteer and it was thanks to their help and the outpouring of donations from the community that the group was able to fix and furnish the house in just three weeks.

"This is all done with donated love," Martin said. 

The former Jakobstettel County Inn was built in the late 1800s and sits on two acres of property close to the downtown area.

The house is large, with 10 rooms available and two large common areas on the main floor. There's also a large dining room and a kitchen that families will share. 

A lot of work also went into making sure the rooms are tailored to each family's need. 

Martin and Brown have been making a lists of the food that will need to be purchased and want to make sure to buy ingredients and food items that are customary in Ukraine.

"I 'Googled, what's your typical Ukranian grocery list?' just because when we're asking, we want to know what they use, what appliance do they need in the kitchen or do they cook with different ingredients that we don't think of," Brown said.

The pair said the community has been overwhelmingly generous in its support of the project, with dozens of people reaching out to offer their help. Everything in the house has been donated by community members.

There's a dedicated storeroom in the house open for anyone to take what they need.

"We want to support the families as best we can," Brown said.

Creating a sense of home

Brown and Martin hope the project fosters a sense of home and community for the families staying at the house. 

"The people that are going to be staying here temporarily can do outreach to other Ukrainian families and all I could think of was, what a lovely place this is going to be for them to celebrate Christmas, to have Thanksgiving, to bring in other families," Martin said.

The groups is adding the finishing touches to the upgrades and renovations this week to host an open house event this weekend.

The group is hoping to fundraise during the event, which will help run the refugee guest house for the next year.