Family Leaves Rochester Hills to Create Detroit Foster Home

Jason and Courtney Faraday have always had a love for helping those in need in Detroit, putting their efforts toward helping less-privileged residents, yet felt detached from the city they were helping when they would retreat to the suburbs after each effort. 

"We have always done a lot in Detroit as far as outreach or trying to help out in the community and always had this notion inside that it would be awesome to live down there instead of serving and then leaving to our Oakland County homes," Jason Faraday said. 

The couple, who after years of unsuccessfully trying to become pregnant adopted a son, JJ, found their calling as parental figures and strived to open a foster home for Detroit youths.

"We found what our purpose was," Jason Faraday said. "I believe because we can't have kids, we'll be parents for someone else."

The couple had returned from living in Arizona about four years ago and had lived a transient life, at first living with Jason Faraday's parents in Oakland Township before renting a home in Rochester Hills that wasn't stable enough of a home to foster other children.

But the couple stumbled upon a diamond in the rough in Detroit, a sprawling, 4,700-square-foot 1914 home complete with a full basement, a ballroom and handcarved woodwork throughout the house.

The asking price for the house was just $5,000—which happened to be the amount an acquaintance of the couple had set aside to help in their efforts to open a foster home. Another couple who were friends of the Faradays had been stockpiling furniture from estate sales for several years and helped fill the spacious home while the Faradays worked on cosmetic improvements to the house with help from friends and fellow members of the Faradays' church.

Jason, Courtney and JJ Faraday moved into the home, dubbed "JJ's House," in March, just shy of JJ's seventh birthday. The home is registered in Michigan as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit and is awaiting the official tax status from the IRS.

The Faradays have big plans for JJ's House, including room for 6-8 foster children at a time and a classroom environment in the ballroom to teach parenting and finance classes to parents who might need some guidance in an effort to keep families intact. The couple also is looking at buying several adjacent lots to create community gardens and provide a playground for the home's children.

Courtney Faraday, meanwhile, plans to create a crisis pregnancy center in the apartment-style full basement, providing a safe home for teen moms looking to bring their child to term to either raise themselves, or for the Faradays to facilitate an adoption.

"We can find a placement for that child instead of terminating it," Courtney Faraday said.

The move hasn't always been the smoothest, however. Within a few weeks of moving in, Courtney Faraday's leased Ford Focus was stolen from the family's driveway and later recovered—stripped bare. 

The Faradays remain undeterred, however, even if they get double takes when they tell people they live in Detroit.

"People say 'Detroit's bad,' and that's it," Jason Faraday said. "There's good in everything. Find the good and pull it out."

JJ, meanwhile, is thrilled with his new home.

"I like it good," he said, noting he enjoys playing in the playroom on the home's third floor, chock full of nooks and crannies perfectly suited for hide-and-seek and covered with chalkboard paint. 

JJ's parents say he also has found beauty in Detroit—"like the trees and stuff," JJ says—and he gets to enjoy "guys' nights" on Tuesdays with his dad, where they'll often take in a Detroit Tigers game at Comerica Park.

The couple plans an Aug. 17 open house for JJ's House, with hopes to raise $15,000 to fence in the property and create a playground. Check the Faradays' Facebook event page for more details.