Helping the Homeless Become Homeowners
On a September evening in Grand Rapids, Mich., the room buzzed with celebration. Families gathered, community partners mingled, and participants shared stories of perseverance. For Ethan VanOrman, one moment from that night stood out above the rest:
A single mother sat with her family as her story played on the big screen. Once homeless, she was now a proud homeowner in the Grand Rapids area, publicly celebrated for the journey that brought her there. One of her children turned to her and asked, “Mommy, is that you?”
“For us,” said VanOrman, it may have seemed like “another event on the calendar. But for her, and for her kids, it meant everything. That’s when you remember why the work matters.”
VanOrman, a Calvin University graduate and attendee at Monroe CRC in Grand Rapids, works for ICCF Community Homes, a local nonprofit pursuing housing justice in West Michigan to help build a more equitable and thriving community. His path to this work, he said, was anything but linear.
A West Michigan native, VanOrman said he entered his college search ready to spread his wings. From Nashville to Boston, he explored schools across the country, looking for the best fit.
Unexpectedly, he said, Calvin University checked all the boxes. The combination of a liberal arts education and a smaller, close-knit campus appealed to him, and acceptance into the former Perkins Fellows leadership cohort sparked his interest in social justice.
“Calvin shaped my heart about my career,” VanOrman said. “I realized I wanted to do something rooted in a local community – something with Christian foundations that also listens well to the people it serves.”
While discerning his calling, VanOrman was also searching for a church community where he could truly belong.
“I had done a lot of what we call ‘church shopping,’” he said. With so many congregations in the Grand Rapids area, finding the right fit proved difficult.
That changed through a church and society class he took at Calvin. For an ethnographic study assignment, VanOrman was required to attend and observe a local church. The assignment led him to Monroe Community Church (MCC).
“I interviewed the pastors and heard their heart for what the church was trying to be,” VanOrman said. “They were comfortable holding tension between extremes.”
With the motto “love God, love people, love the city,” MCC’s mission resonated deeply with him, said VanOrman. His desire to pursue justice and invest in the Grand Rapids community aligned naturally with the church’s vision.
After graduating, VanOrman continued to grow at MCC. “They really let me take ownership and made me feel like I was part of the church,” he said, “not just someone sitting in the pews.”
Anthony Vander Schaaf, pastor of teaching and vision at MCC, said he has valued getting to know VanOrman during his time at the church.
“Ethan is the type of person any pastor longs to work with,” Vander Schaaf said. “He holds firm convictions while remaining deeply teachable, always seeking God’s face in whatever work he’s doing.”
Though he had found a church home, VanOrman still struggled to discern his career path after university, he said. He considered law school, teaching, and where he wanted to put down long-term roots.
“I graduated from Calvin not knowing what job I was going to have,” he said. And although it wasn’t his plan, a signed lease kept him in Grand Rapids.
Then, when job openings appeared at ICCF Community Homes, VanOrman applied immediately. “I had volunteered with ICCF through a Calvin class during my freshman year,” he said. Landing a role as an advancement specialist, he said, the pieces fit, though he had never expected to work in fundraising.
ICCF Community Homes helps neighbors to move along the housing spectrum from homelessness to homeownership. Each year, the organization serves more than 2,000 households through housing-related services, manages over 600 units of affordable rental housing, and provides homeownership education to hundreds of individuals and families.
A significant part of VanOrman’s role, he said, involves meeting with churches, many of them CRC congregations.
“We both care deeply about homelessness and housing security,” he said. “We’re natural partners.”
VanOrman said he also has a deep love for Grand Rapids and is mindful of the challenges facing the community. His faith motivates him to stay, invest locally, and contribute to positive change, he added.
“Both my church and my job point toward seeing more of God’s kingdom come on this earth,” he said.
To students and young adults in the Grand Rapids community, VanOrman offers this encouragement: trust God’s work in the place where you live.
“Learn more about where you are,” he said. “Learn the good and the hard things, and learn to appreciate both.”
VanOrman said he realizes that his willingness to follow God’s call, though often unplanned, has led him into work where stories of transformation unfold, sometimes even on a big screen.
“A simple obedience to God’s call—for justice, for mercy—those are the moments when you truly see God’s grace,” he said.
