Delaware family homeless after being promised free home

Imagine getting a newly refurbished home, for free - that's what a Delaware charity promised a local family in need.

The program was called Home for the Holidays, and the media release invited Action News to watch them put the "finishing touches" on a house, as the organizers drew a winners' name from a list of 200 applicants.

Madinah Brown and her three daughters cried tears of joy, the day she was told they would soon be moving out of a shelter, and into a newly refurbishes four bedroom home.

"What they wanted to do was honorable, so everybody would want to help," said Brown.

And the donations seemed to roll in, a Go Fund Me page shows donations totaling $28,699 for the project.

But months, a year, and more have passed since the announcement and the house is still vacant.

"They said 30 days. They said the house would be in living condition within 30 days," said Brown.

Instead, the windows are now boarded up, the roof partially removed, and there is water damage, and damage from fires that squatters set inside.

"For you to come here and think that we're not going to finish, when my heart is in it. My dad worked in this house with lung cancer, do you understand?" said Kim Bromer.

Broomer and Shayvette Hunter - the organizers - are from a real estate company called Keep Selling Property.

They spoke with us, and said they wanted to do their part to help end homelessness.

"I don't want people to look at this as like, 'Wow Kim and Shay let the community down.' Look at this as the community, we let each other down," said Broomer.

They are pointing fingers at the community, and claim in spite of the numbers on the website, many of those pledges never came in.

They say people never stepped up to give them money.

"Small businesses don't go around buying houses and giving them away, we're a small business we're not one of the big time," said Broomer.

But Brown says that's exactly what she was promised in front of a crowd of media and cameras.

"They exploited me and my family. My daughters are like, 'When are we going to move into this house mom?' And I can't give them nothing," said Brown.

Broomer and Hunter tell Action News they purchased the house for $17,000, using $5,000 out of their own pockets, and $12,000 from an anonymous donor.

It's unclear exactly how much money Hunter and Broomer have raised, but they estimate it is a $130,000 project.

"Maybe the Lord will prick your heart, and you will help us out, personally," said Broomer.

And somehow they say, they still plan to complete this house for Brown's family.

Although they say they never set a deadline when it would be done.

We asked them if they think that is acceptable to be waiting a year and a half.

"For a free house? Yeah, I mean you would wait for a free house for two to five years or however long it would take," said Hunter.

Brown did file a complaint with the Delaware Attorney General's office, which they are reviewing for potential charitable misrepresentation.

Broomer and Hunter tell Action News they have recently received some corporate donations for supplies for the roof, roofing work, and electrical work.

They hope to restart the project again soon.