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Both Loren Wood and Margie Schrader invest in their Bloomington, Indiana community whenever they can. So when COVID-19 arrived in their state, the close friends jumped at the chance to help medical workers faced with putting themselves in harm’s way.
Loren, of Loren Wood Builders, and Margie, owner of Zennia Hospitality, joined efforts in late March. Margie manages Loren’s four vacation rentals as part of her Zennia portfolio. After an international call with other vacation rental owners and managers to brainstorm how to help coronavirus frontline responders, Margie and Loren decided to get involved. They arranged to offer Loren’s properties to COVID-19 medical workers free of charge.
“I’m glad to help these guys on the front lines of this battle,” Loren said. “It feels good to know I can be part of providing a comfortable place for them to rest after their shift—or on days off. It’s a special thing to be able to do.”
A Surprising Response
Loren doubted their ability to find people who might be seeking a rental. But immediately after Margie posted the offering on Facebook on March 20, they discovered a tremendous local need. Loren and Margie also found housing needs extended beyond Bloomington.
“One guest lives in Indianapolis an hour away. He’d been driving down here to work. We have people who were paying for hotels and working extra nursing shifts to cover the cost,” Loren said.
Jordan Garvey, a friend of Loren and an ER nurse at Sidney & Lois Eskenazi Hospital in Indianapolis, was one of their first guests. Jordan lives in Kentucky and commutes to Indianapolis weekly for three shifts in a row at Eskenazi. He usually stays with his parents in the city during the days he works, but they both have health conditions that would make exposure to COVID-19 extremely dangerous. In Kentucky, he lives with someone who is immunocompromised due to medications for a liver transplant.
“Putting these people that I love at higher risk for infection is not an option,” Jordan said. When he learned Jordan was looking for a place to self-isolate, Loren called him right away to offer him one of his homes for free as long as ne needed to, no strings attached.
“These acts give me reassurance that we will indeed get through this together,” Jordan said. “Most importantly, my temporary home in Bloomington decreases exposure for my family and friends to this virus. For that, we are forever grateful for Loren and [his wife Lindsay.]”
Working Together to Help
Word spread quickly. After the Indiana Daily Student ran an article, another local landlord reached out to Loren and Margie and offered two of his properties to the cause.
Loren’s personal costs for donating the housing include mortgage payments, property taxes, upkeep and utilities. The latter he described as negligible given the homes’ energy efficiency, this season’s mild weather, and the guests’ use mostly for rest. He also acknowledged his rentals aren’t his main source of income.
“I’m not relying on my rental property to pay my bills and feed my family,” he said. “I respect that other people do rely on it—I can’t imagine what that must be like for them right now. I feel for them.”
Margie donates her cleaning services to the effort. “Loren is really putting himself out there in a big way,” Margie said. “It just feels like the right thing to do to match that on my side. If I hadn’t donated cleaning services, he would be paying for cleaning out of pocket—which just wouldn’t be right. We’re a team.”
Margie founded Zennia in May 2018, initially with one home owned by Loren. Today, Zennia manages five houses. Their guests normally come to Bloomington either because of association with Indiana University, or for a getaway from Chicago, Cincinnati, Louisville or the Indianapolis area. COVID-19 wiped out her reservations for April and early May. It also affected many summer reservations.
In This Together
But the sting of losing so many reservations has perhaps been overshadowed by the positive response they’ve gotten to their free housing initiative. Margie said they’re overwhelmed by the many beautiful Facebook responses they’ve received. At the time this article was published, the post had been shared 486 times.
“People I’ve never met shared their gratitude in such heartfelt ways. It was really surprising and so sweet,” she said.
Margie spoke with one of her guests as she was moving in. They shared a conversation while maintaining social distancing guidelines. The experience brought home how hard everything is for health care workers during the pandemic. She sensed the heaviness of this individual’s heart: She worried about the family she was leaving at home, she worried about her own health, and she felt tired and uncertain about the future as she moved into an unfamiliar house to live alone.
“I couldn’t even help carry her things from the car to the house. I’m holding all of our healthcare workers in my heart—feeling the unfairness of their situation,” Margie said. “I wish there was more I could do.”
Loren said he sees the emotional return for doing something as meaningful, outweighing what he might be able to earn in a reduced-priced booking.
Margie added, “That’s what we’re all doing, right? Just taking the next step in front of you and doing what you can. Since we aren’t COVID-19 frontline workers ourselves, this was the thing we could give.”
Know of other people or companies stepping up to help others through the coronavirus crisis? Email info@rentresponsibly.org.
