My name is  Loubao Kraka and I am a senior studying Civil Engineering in the duo program between University of Missouri Saint Louis and Washington University. This summer, I was fortunate to work with Toni Wade, founder and CEO of HomeQuest Group which is a Real Estate investing company that provides affordable and safe housing for underserved and underrepresented individuals. Toni Wade and her structure also provide various mentorship programs to this community of people, and on the importance of homeownership and how to be self-autonomous by providing jobs for themselves. Since 2009, Toni Wade and her team have purchased over a dozen multifamily homes that meet specific property requirements in order to house disadvantaged populations and continue to transform lives by showing our model of homeownership and self-sustenance.

Since I moved to Saint Louis city for college, I have seen a huge number of homeless groups in downtown Saint Louis City, especially at night. Seeing them sleeping on the ground at night during the winter devastated me. As John F. Kennedy once said: “Ask not what your country can do for you – ask what you can do for your country,”. I decided to take matters into my hands by providing blankets during the cold winter. But realizing it was not enough, I had the opportunity to work with Homequest group through the Skandalaris to develop this platform called “HomHub”, which will definitely be a game-changer to solve homelessness in the city of Saint Louis. The founder, Toni Wade, through her leadership, has taught me the importance and the impact of what we are building for this community that needs it the most. Being able to work at Little Sisters of the Poor definitely gave me another perspective of life and humbled me more than ever. This non-profit organization hosts people who are facing several hurdles in life from mental illness to unemployment and give them a second chance by providing job training in order to find to earn an income and have case managers who help them through the process of mental recovery. Through the process of building HomHub, the founder gave me and the other intern room to expand our ideas and freedom to be ourselves. She knew that we were passionate about the project, so it allows us to be productive and to give the best ourselves.