Dear DREAM Supporter,
Asalaamu alaikum! Peace be upon you.
We can’t tell you how thrilled we are about the house that we just bought! Acquiring this home was like dream a come true (pun intended) and now we’re working every day to make it one of the most beautiful buildings on the street adjacent to our mosque.
If you believe, like we do, that our community has the power to transform this entire neighborhood—that the Believers can make this area a beacon of light for all of Detroit—will you make a small contribution today to support the work of DREAM? Your donation will help DREAM sell the next set of homes to new residents and responsible landlords.
Here we are on the porch of the home that we just bought and started rehabbing. We’ll be done by next month, God-willing.
By the grace of the Most High, we’ve been here from the start of this effort. Seven years ago, we helped found a group called Neighborly Needs to provide support and resources to the people living around the Muslim Center of Detroit. Several years later, Neighborly Needs partnered with the Indus Community Action Network to give birth to Dream of Detroit to accelerate our housing development work.
At each step in the process, we’ve become more and more convinced that the Muslim community and its allies—in metro Detroit and beyond—have the ability to bring this once beautiful neighborhood back to life, if we all chip in a little bit to make it a reality.
We make it a point to attend every DREAM event—the volunteer meetings, the clean up days, the tree plantings. All of it. Because when it’s all said and done, we want to be sure that we’ve played our part. For us, buying this home was the next phase in our commitment.
Our intention is to turn the lower level of the house into a rental property for the immediate future—and we’ve already lined up a faithful family eager to move in. We’ll turn the upstairs unit into an office space for Neighborly Needs, DREAM and any other organization sincerely serving the people of this community. We know that being filled by a loving family and community servants will make this home shine bright.
Trust us, if we could self-fund this entire development project, we would, but unfortunately, we aren’t in a position to buy every home that’s available. That’s why we’re turning to you—the supporters of DREAM—to ask that you double down on your commitment during this month of Ramadan.
Between now and July 30, we have a lot of work to do to make our neighborhood look pristine before we welcome tens, maybe hundreds, of prospective residents for a neighborhood Open House. We’ll need at least two more clean up days, we’ll need marketing materials, and we’ll need the support of professional inspectors, graphic designers, and contractors. In total, it’ll cost about $3,800 to do the important work that has to happen before DREAM’s Open House, where we hope to find buyers for at least our next five homes.
We’re honored to be in community with you. Whether you donate today or not, please remember DREAM and every individual working hard on behalf of this project in your prayers during this blessed month.
Sincerely,
Thaddeus and Baheejah Shakoor
