Bob Murray Housing with Love Walk Begins Monday

CCB MEDIA PHOTO
Participants in the Bob Murray Housing with Love Walk.

PROVINCETOWN – The 24^th annual Bob Murray Housing with Love Walk will begin on Monday in Provincetown.

The seven-day walk raises money to help local agencies provide housing and prevent homelessness on Cape Cod.

The walk spans the entire length of the Cape, from Provincetown to Falmouth and ends on July 17.

Housing Assistance Corporation Director of Community Relations and Fundraising Laura Reckford said the annual event makes a difference in the community.

“It’s a very fun seven days where nine different social service agencies, agencies involved with housing, collaborate together to raise money, to help people find housing,” said Reckford.

Those nine agencies include Champ Homes in Hyannis, the Chatham Ecumenical Council for the Homeless and the Community Development Partnership.

Don Jenkins, a volunteer for the walk, said that the average person would need to make $24 an hour to afford a two-bedroom apartment on Cape Cod, but the average wage of a renter on the Cape is $10.67 an hour.

“An awful lot of the people living under the poverty line here are single parents, single moms with children,” said Jenkins. “They really have no chance to afford a two-bedroom apartment at that price.”

Cape and Islands State Senator Dan Wolf is attending the event and will honor DJ Sullivan, a long-time friend of Murray who walked with him in the event for over a decade.

Since its inception in 1993, the walk has raised over $4.5 million.

Murray was the founder of the Falmouth Housing Corporation and the Harwich Ecumenical Council for the Homeless, before passing away in 2013.