CCB MEDIA PHOTO
Participants in the Bob Murray Housing with Love Walk start up again after a lunch break in East Sandwich.
SANDWICH – Walkers continue to travel across Cape Cod for the Bob Murray Housing with Love Walk, which started in Provincetown on Monday and ends in Falmouth on Sunday.
The walk is a collaboration between 11 agencies involved with housing and homeless issues on the Cape and Islands and usually raises over $200,000 each year.
Richard Waystack, along with his wife, is one of the eight walkers who is participating every day and is walking for Housing Assistance Corporation this year.
“I know I’m going home to a safe, comfortable home tonight and a clean bed to sleep in and there are folks who are concerned about that every day here on Cape Cod,” Waystack said.
Waystack said the issue of affordable housing on the Cape needs immediate attention.
“With wages that are less than state average and housing costs that are pushing 30 percent higher than the state average, it makes it difficult,” he said. “And I think we can make a difference with 11 housing agencies coming together speaking as one strong voice that we can say that people have a right to clean, safe, comfortable housing for all on the Cape.”
The walk was started in 1993 by Bob Murray, who founded the Falmouth Housing Corporation and the Harwich Ecumenical Council for the Homeless.
Murray walked across all 15 towns to raise awareness to the need of better housing opportunities on the Cape and Islands. He died in 2013.
“Two years ago, before Bobby passed, I had the honor of pushing him in a wheelchair one of the days [on the walk],” Waystack said. “And it was one of the greatest days of my life. His legacy and his message needs to stay alive.”
Nicholas DiBuono, a 76-year-old summer resident in Dennis, participated in the walk Thursday through Barnstable and Sandwich.
“I just know I’m supporting such a good cause, and contribute monetarily as well,” he said. “And I wish there were more participants.”
DiBuono said he has been influenced by Murray and he remembers what he used to say.
“There’s people who just need that one payment to get up over a hump,” DiBuono said. “If you can just alleviate that problem that they have financially then they can pretty much be self-sufficient.”
Deanna Bussiere, who works for Housing Assistance Corporation, is helping every day with the support van for the walkers making the trek across the Cape.
“It’s great for awareness and donations,” she said. “What we really need are the people to donate to help us to make the programs work that each one of these agencies are doing here on the Cape.”
Bussiere said the donations have been strong because of the press coverage and social media.
DJ Sullivan, 79, of South Yarmouth, is participating in the walk for the eleventh time, six of which were the entire walk.
Sullivan said he makes the walk because he still can and also remembers what Murray used to tell him.
“As Bob used to say, that’s too much money to leave on the table. You have to keep doing it,” he said.
Donations can still be made at murrayhousingwalk.org.
