You may have seen a House of Hope Cleaning Crew van with a neon yellow house tooling around the city lately. It’s more than just a cleaning company. It’s in service of a larger dream, a house for young people to find direction, for anyone in need of a fresh start or a second chance to land. Its proprietor is LaKeitha Bittle-Horne. In 2022 she established the business, which does all manner of cleaning, from standard to deep, to move-in and move-out, to basements and attics and garages, as well as leaf, snow, and junk removal. Bittle-Horne, 50, grew up in Fair Haven, attended Career High School, then worked as a security guard and judicial marshal. All the while, she was raising her two daughters as a single mother in a corner house on Lloyd and Exchange Streets. “That was a rough corner,” she recalled during an interview in late January at B*Wak Productions on Whalley Avenue; owner Edmund B*Wak Comfort, a visual artist and entrepreneur, recently transformed the exterior of her van. “I’d go out there and break up a lot of fights.” It didn’t end there. “If one of my daughters’ friends had a problem, they’d say ‘you need to come talk to my mom,’ and I’d just listen and hear them out and give them direction or attention or love or whatever they needed that they weren’t getting. “I had some girls who got pregnant, some who were struggling to get themselves clean, and they would come tell me, ‘I don’t know what to do’ and I would talk to them, and help them figure out a way forward,” she recalled. “She never judged anybody, never made them feel ashamed,” said her daughter Jamaira in a telephone interview. “Anytime someone’s in trouble, they know they can go to her, and that’s still true.” That’s why, she said, “my mom has never changed her phone number. She wants everybody to know they can to reach her.” Sheka Green, who’s on the House of Hope cleaning crew and grew up with Bittle-Horne, agreed. “She’s just like her [late] mother [Kathleen Bittle-Bromell],” Green said. “If you need her, she’s there for you, and even if she’s tired, she’ll still get up and help. They just believe there’s always someone you can help.” From that philosophy came a dream: opening a literal house of hope, a place of temporary housing where people could gain life skills and find direction, whether young people aging out of foster care who were otherwise lost, or young single fathers without support, or anyone looking for a fresh start. “All these people, I want to be the person that sees them, that gives them hope,” she said. She trademarked the House of Hope name a few years ago, while continuing to quietly do her good works, taking in people who didn’t have anywhere to stay and with her sister feeding those living in Tent City until it was dismantled. The yellow house on the van and her business cards? That’s a manifestation, drawn by B*Wak, of the House of Hope. Initially she saw the cleaning business as a way to fund her dream—as well as provide jobs for those unable to find work. (Currently she has four employees.) Along the way, she discovered she had a passion for it. LaKeitha tidying up B*Wack’s computer area with her self-concocted non-toxic cleaning product mixed with melaleuca oil. “I start cleaning and I just feel happy, like I’m bringing order to someone’s house, I’m making it beautiful,” she said. “When I’m cleaning, my focus is I can’t wait until they see it, I can’t wait to see their joy.” Kiona Jarman said she found Bittle-Horne on Facebook at a time that she was feeling overwhelmed. “My husband was coming home from the hospital and she came in and cleaned and organized and just made everything better,” said the Fair Haven resident.   A busy December… As she awaits word on the nonprofit status of the HOH Foundation, and continues to put money away for the project, she’s doing what she’s always done—just with her clients. “I always prioritize the elderly and the disabled,” she said. “They’re people who have a heart to clean, but they just can’t do it anymore, so just to see the pleasure they show, that’s everything.” She said she charges only what they can afford. “I will never charge them more. They have enough to deal with.” Yes, she allowed, sometimes her dream feels far away, but at least she’s doing work that serves others. “That’s everything,” she said. The post Fair Haven Cleaning Pro Builds A “House Of Hope” appeared first on New Haven Independent. ...read more read less