Music business veteran Courtney Stewart is giving back to Atlanta’s most vulnerable segment in a big way. He’s building homes for single mothers and taking care of their bills for a whole year.
Stewart, an Atlanta native, recently talked to AtlantaFi.com about his new Right Hand Foundation project and how it came about.
Right Hand Foundation Provides Free Housing, Resources To Atlanta Single Mothers
A home in College Park, the project’s first Right Hand Haven, is the initial step of Stewart’s plan that will give a struggling single mother what she needs: a happy home free of charge.
“It’s a duplex, where both sides have two bedrooms, one bathroom and the vision is to put a single mother in here free for a year, no bills, not anything,” Stewart tells AtlantaFi.com.
Stewart, the manager for Grammy Award-nominated artist Khalid, says that his Right Hand Foundation, is providing a fresh start for those in need.
“I purchased a duplex and we went in and completely rehabbed it,” he says. “We put in new appliances and new floors and we made it into a space where we would want to live and that was important because we wanted to bring people into a positive element, a positive environment.”
He says he was inspired by working with the needy some years ago in Atlanta.
“I started giving back about five or six years ago and I partnered with this foundation and they had these hotels that they were servicing. I would buy Christmas gifts for all the families. When I’d go in, there’d be a single mother with about four kids in a hotel room and I would literally walk out in tears. And I’d say, ‘Why are you living in a hotel?”
And they would say, ‘I don’t have employment right now’ or ‘I’ve been evicted.'” Stewart says “these women were paying about $50 a day to stay there, which is over $1,000 a month and enough to get an apartment.”
But because of their history, they weren’t able to pass the application process. The Right Hand Foundation aims to change that.
We’re going to help them get employment. I’m going to bring in partners and resources to teach them financial planning and to get tutoring for their children. The objective is we want to them to able to sustain themselves on their own.
Here’s who the Right Hand Foundation is looking for
Stewart says he’s looking to help a specific kind of person: Someone who has fallen on hard times through no fault of their own.
“I’m being very, very particular about the vetting process,” he says.
Stewart says these are the qualifications for the Right Hand Foundation:
“I want to find single mothers with a history of employment, a history of education, but life just rocked them. They’re going through something — perhaps a death in the family, or an illness that kept them from working or they might have been laid off.”
He acknowledges that his is a very niche program, but that’s exactly the point.
“The point of the program is after you’ve had all of this free for a year,” as he waves his hand around the home, “we want you to be able to sustain on your own — it’s really about sustainability.”
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