Dealer Provides Cars for Working Poor
In the dead of a New England winter, Cathie Jones’ car broke down. For a time, she relied on the bus and a helpful uncle to get to work, but it was tough being a single working mother with no wheels.
Then came what she calls a godsend: For under $500, she got a car that ran just fine, a 1987 Honda Accord.
Where did she find such a deal?
The Good News Garage.
The garage is a used car dealership and repair shop that operates like a community health center. Regardless of income, everyone who needs help gets served.
The shop fixes donated vehicles and turns them over to low-income drivers for the cost of the repairs. It also gives away bikes and repairs cars on sliding-scale rates.
The manager, Hal Colston, a former chef and social worker from Philadelphia, came up with the idea.
“We believe transportation shouldn’t be a privilege, but should be a basic for everyone,” he says. “People are just trying to make ends meet, trying to make a life, and if they can’t get to . . . jobs, it’s very, very difficult.”
Lutheran Social Services of New England and federal grants fund the garage and pay the competitive salaries of two mechanics and Colston. Money made from repairs and the occasional sale of a donated Mercedes or other luxury car also sustain the operation.
The Good News Garage evolved after Colston worked for Community Action, a social services agency in Burlington.
There, he says, he was constantly reminded of the burden that iffy transportation placed on his clients. Their cars would break down, they’d be on the verge of losing their jobs, and he’d call up junkyards and enlist generous mechanics to do the work.
When one of his clients bought a piece of junk for $500 from a disreputable car dealer, the seed for the Good News Garage was planted.
Colston, in his mid-40s, has an air of optimism and hope.
He says Vermont’s sense of community drew him when he moved from York, Pa., nine years ago with his wife and two daughters to take a job as an instructor and catering director at the New England Culinary Institute. Eventually, he left the food industry to go into social services.
“I strongly believe in our need as people to help our neighbor,” says Colston, a Lutheran who thinks this outlook should cut across religious boundaries. “If you have more, then you share with someone who has less.”
Sitting at a table in the back of the three-bay garage, he is surrounded by tools, lifts and training manuals, all donated or bought below cost, and by two mechanics he describes as very skilled.
John Van Zandt, tall and bearded, is finishing up a 1964 Plymouth Belvedere in the front bay. A young woman whose 1963 Dodge Dart just died is due to pick up her new ride at noon.
Having worked in more traditional mechanics’ shops, Van Zandt says, “It’s much more gratifying helping low-income people than making the dealer richer.”
The drawback is that many donated cars come into the shop in poor shape, and the work can be daunting.
In the back of the garage, Bill Heald, a young apprentice mechanic in Reach-Up, a welfare-to-work program, labors beneath a 1986 Ford Escort wagon on lifts. The garage trains mechanics in the Reach-Up program and has sent four into other jobs.
Colston would like to see similar garages throughout New England. The Good News Garage has plans to set up two satellite shops in St. Johnsbury and Newport this summer. And the word is spreading.
After nationally broadcast news reports on the garage, Colston has heard from more than 30 communities interested in starting their own shops.
For now, Good News Garage can’t keep up with the demand. In its two years, it has given away 110 cars. But there are 300 people on the waiting list.
