“A well needed resource’

The nonprofit Wear Gloves Dignity House opened in Ocala on May 2,2025, after a nine-month revamp of an existing building. The transitional housing facility for homeless men will include a work skills program and on-site health services. [Photo by Andy Fillmore/Ocala Gazette]

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Posted May 3, 2025 | By Andy Fillmore, [email protected]

The Wear Gloves Dignity House will house up to 70 formerly homeless men and provide a 12-month structured skills training program and a built-in savings plan, all meant to serve as a pathway toward independent or supportive housing.

On Friday, May 2, Wear Gloves co-founders Wendy and Ken Kebrdle hosted a ribbon cutting ceremony to celebrate the grand opening of the Wear Gloves Dignity House following a nine-month building restoration project.

“Residents can get healthy and learn life skills here,” Wendy Kebrdle said.

The Wear Gloves nonprofit provides clients with essential job skills, boosting their confidence and paving the way for them to embark on a path towards becoming valuable contributors to the community, according to its website. Wear Gloves other outreaches include the Dignity Center for workforce readiness job skills training and Dignity Roasters, a coffee roasting and sales operation that involves participants in the workforce readiness program.

Many of the 100 or so attendees at the event were with Wear Gloves or were volunteers involved in the Dignity House project.

The Rev. Donald Curran of Christ the Anglican Church offered a blessing that included the words that the “building was set apart for the purposes of God.”

Visitors were given a tour of the refurbished building, which has rooms that initially will house one resident with future plans for multiple men in each room.

Zach Farrar with the project contractor, Benmar Construction, called the job a “total revamp” of the building.
John and Deanna Cervellera were clearly impressed by a tour provided by Gil Edunk with Wear Gloves.

“Amazing. This is a well needed resource,” John Cervellera said.

Deanna Cervellera commented on the large room size and that residents will be allowed to have pets.

The 13,000 square foot building was built in 1973 and previously housed the Creative Services’ Ocala Domestic Violence: Sexual Assault Center.

As noted in a prior “Gazette” article, the Marion County Board of County Commissioners approved $635,000 in U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development funds on July 16, 2024, for Wear Gloves to purchase the building and $400,000 was later approved for building renovations. Wear Gloves would supply $258,750 for the project, the article stated.

“People living unsheltered—such as in cars, under bridges and in camps—will be referred through a coordinated entry list administered by the Ocala/Marion County Joint Office of Homelessness Prevention,” according to the article.

Dignity House includes a visitor lobby, spacious dining room and kitchen, a library, a resource room, a counseling center, a healthcare center and a security room with 24-hour staff monitoring. Multiple cameras are in place throughout the building.

Assistance to clients will include help with ID replacement, budgeting assistance, a clinic and volunteers on site weekly from SMA Healthcare, a provider of mental health and substance abuse services, and My Life Counseling.
The Rookie Room is set aside to accept two people directly from the street brought in by law enforcement on a crisis intervention basis. A plaque outside states that it is in partnership with the Ocala Police Department and Marion County Sheriff’s Office.

Dignity House residents will pay rent based upon their income and half will be held in savings for the man when he leaves for the next step in life, according to Ken Kebrdle. He said a resident might pay, for example, $400, and half will go into savings.

Harvey Morrissey, an enrollment coordinator with the Southeastern University/Ocala Campus at Meadowbrook Church, was at the grand opening. He said about 30 students put in a total of 300 volunteer hours in the Dignity House project.
Morrissey Indicated the volunteer work was aimed at developing a “heart for service” in the students.

Madi Kebrdle, the Kebrdles’ daughter and Wear Gloves vice president of operations, and Melissa Abney, Wear Gloves program manager, were recognized at the ribbon cutting.

Ocala Mayor Ben Marciano was on hand for the grand opening. He said he recently rode along with the OPD Bicycle Patrol and encountered perhaps 10 unsheltered homeless people representing those who could be helped by awareness of the Dignity House program.

Marciano said the Kebrdles’ “get things done” and that their outreaches are worthy of “investment by the community.” He called the facility “God inspired.”

To learn more, go to weargloves.org