MOKA, which stands for Muskegon, Ottawa, Kent and Allegan, is a nonprofit providing services for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities.
Tracey Hamlet is MOKA’s Executive Director. She says Michigan-based nonprofit Samaritas, which provides similar services, gave notice that it would no longer be operating five adult foster care homes in Muskegon County.
“We solely provide services to that population, whereas Samaritas has a number of groups they provide, we thought we could be a good resource to those folks, so we went ahead and put in a bid and we were grateful to be awarded those homes.”
This will add to MOKA’s thirty-plus established adult foster care homes across West Michigan.
Hamlet says clients currently living in those Samaritas homes will remain in the residences and continue receiving care under MOKA. Many employees working in those homes have transitioned to MOKA.
“Our goal was to hire every employee if they met our organization requirements and they still had a mission to serve those folks they were serving and continue to keep folks as stable and in the same situation, so they didn’t experience any negative.”
Hamlet says three of the five homes acquired have completed the onboarding process. The other two will complete the transition by the end of the summer.
