A consortium of eight faith-based organizations co-founded Neighborhood House in order to help local families undergoing financial problems. The organization started by making referrals to various human service agencies in Oakland County.

Neighborhood House’s service expanded to include food stamp distribution, loaning of medical equipment, and volunteer transportation. The Food Pantry was also established at the First Congregational Church.

The Clothes Closet building opened for business as the result of a gift from an ad hoc group called the “Citizens of Rochester Committee.”

• Did you know? The Neighborhood House Clothes Closet has a long history dating back to 1937 when Lyle ‘Red’ Knapp, a volunteer firefighter, set out to help families who lost their belongings to fire or experienced extreme tragedy. With the help of the Inter-Church women and Red Knapp, the Clothes Closet expanded and moved from basements, garages, and railroad cars to its current location today at 44 Mill Street.

Neighborhood House received a van to transport clients to essential appointments through Community Development Block Grant funds from Oakland Township. Oakland Township repeated this support in 2004 by purchasing a van to replace the earlier donation.

Neighborhood House began to search for a new location for a main office building with higher visibility and additional space to accommodate expanded programming.

Neighborhood House moved from providing one-time emergency help to providing programs focused on long-term self-sustainability, which required us to find a larger home of our own, so we embarked on our capital campaign.

In response to the growing needs in our community, we opened the doors at our new home located in Rochester Hills, MI. The additional space has allowed us to create new programs such as computer skills training, positive parenting classes, and financial management seminars. Everything we do focuses on bringing those in crisis to self-sustainability.