BROOKINGS – Craig Pahl, seated left, of Brookings Empowerment Project, and Paul Moriarty, of Moriarty Rentals, sign a year-long lease Friday for a house at 817 Onaka Trail in Brookings. BEP will turn it into transitional housing for people who are getting out of in-patient mental health treatment centers to help them adapt to life before moving out on their own. 

Witnessing the transaction are, from left, Doug O’Neill of BEP; Heidi Gullickson of Brookings Area United Way; Sister Elaine Garry of St. Thomas More Catholic Church and coordinator of the Brookings Ministerial Association; Mary O’Neill of BEP; and Jessica Wulf, chair of the Housing Committee.

Pahl hopes to have tenants in the house in June. Tenants will be referred by the Human Services Center in Yankton or Avera Behavioral Health Center in Sioux Falls, but “referrals have to meet certain guidelines,” Pahl said. It is a pilot program, and they will be learning as they go, he added. For now, they will have a maximum of six women in the house. They are hoping to expand in the future.

BEP is looking for donations to furnish the house, including six single beds, bedding, couches for the common area, barstools, silverware, plates, cookware and a television set. They are looking for new items, not used, and they will be selective, Pahl said. Contact BEP at bep57006@gmail.com for more information.

BEP will hold a rummage sale from 9 a.m.-noon May 5 at the Brookings Activity Center. It’s the main fundraiser to support the house, Pahl said, and organizers are looking for donated items to sell. Items should be delivered to the Brookings Activity Center the Friday before because BEP has no place to store it beforehand.

BEP is planning an open house for some time in May so the public can see the house on Onaka Trail and how it’s set up for the tenants, Wulf said.