Jason Crocenzi & Jennifer Draisey-Crocenzi

On a Wednesday afternoon at Treasure Trove Toy Store, a guy comes in to chat with the owner, a young local rapper stops by to look at toys for his son, and a kind man pops in for a snack and, hopefully, some money in exchange for shoes he’s looking to sell.

It’s busy, although it gets much busier, explained owner Jennifer Draisey-Crocenzi.

On the first floor of the downtown Harrisburg shop, shelves hold rows of trinkets, dishes and toys, clothing is hung on racks, and framed art leans against the walls. There are snacks and drinks for sale inside, but the owner will give them for free to those who look a little thirsty or hungry.

Outside, there’s a display of shoes for sale, but they’re free for people returning home from prison, Draisey-Crocenzi said.

“They have this belief system that if you’re walking in the shoes from jail or prison that they’re going to walk you back there,” she said. “So, the second they get out, they immediately take off their shoes, go barefoot, and they can pick any of the shoes out there for free.”

That specific circumstance often happens several times a week.

Some people come to the N. 2nd Street store to shop, others to sell or donate items. Some come looking for Draisey-Crocenzi because they’ve heard she will help them.

For the city’s most in-need, “Treasure Trove” has lived up to its name.

The moniker hails from the shop’s west shore counterpart—Draisey-Crocenzi and her husband’s original shop by the same name in Newberrytown. That store has grown tremendously over the years, she explained, drawing in toy collectors with their large inventory and special Comic-Con and celebrity meet-and-greet events.

In Harrisburg, the satellite shop’s clientele is quite different.

Over the past several months, Draisey-Crocenzi’s shop has become a hub for those experiencing homelessness and hardship. She regularly gives people free clothes, shoes, snacks and drinks. However, the resources she connects them with may be even more important.

She has already assisted more than a handful of people in getting off the street and into apartments. Sometimes, she helps them find rental assistance through local service providers or uses her own resources.

From her perspective, if you see a need, you should do something about it.

“How could I ease the suffering a little bit?” she said. “And when the answers are so simple. They have muddy pants, so they need a clean pair of pants so people don’t mock them, or their shirt’s ripped and they have stuff on their face. I’ll wipe their face and put on a new shirt and give them a drink and a snack and tell them to have a good day. I just know if someone would’ve done that for me when I got to town, my whole life would’ve been a lot easier. I wouldn’t have had to go hungry so long.” 

Positive Presence

Many people know about Draisey-Crocenzi and the help she provides through word of mouth. Others just stumble upon the shop and end up leaving with new shoes and a bottle of water. Or some may remember her from a time when she was waiting for a free meal in the same line as they were.

During the pandemic, Draisey-Crocenzi found herself experiencing homelessness in Harrisburg, until a landlord took a chance on her.

“I got to know everyone out here, and I stood in a lot of food lines, and I would ask people, ‘How did this happen?’” she said. “I started to see how the people were suffering.”

The Etters, Pa., native found community in Harrisburg. And now, operating Treasure Trove, Draisey-Crocenzi sees her business as a way to give back and offer a consistent, positive presence downtown.

“There has to be some place where people can go to get some sort of help on a daily basis,” she said. “It’s not enough to set up a van and pass out [food] once a month. We appreciate that. It’s great, but it’s not enough.”

Several months ago, John, 64, who asked that his last name be omitted, came from Philadelphia to Harrisburg in search of a place to live when he just happened to walk by Treasure Trove. He struck up a conversation with Draisey-Crocenzi, mentioning that he needed housing.

Within a few weeks, he had a place of his own—after years of being unhoused.

“It felt really good that she was helping me out,” he said. “My immediate thought was to do something to pay her back.”

Some people may have money from working, Social Security or disability payments, but it’s the struggle to find affordable housing that’s keeping them homeless, like it was for John. In that case, a resource like Draisey-Crocenzi, who has a landlord connection, makes all the difference. In other cases, mental health issues or physical disabilities may limit someone. Or it could even be the simple fact that someone doesn’t have luggage, only trash bags to carry their belongings in, turning off landlords, Draisey-Crocenzi said.

“The reality is some of these people, they could have a million dollars,” she said. “If you can’t use a computer, you’ve never been online, if you have no family, they all died in the pandemic, you’re old, elderly, in a wheelchair […] to those people, money doesn’t really matter to them. They want a safe place to lock a door and lie down on a bed. It’s really that simple.”

Doing Something

Homelessness prevails in Harrisburg, although often out of sight from the general public. The city’s largest encampment, near the PennDOT building in South Harrisburg, is set to be disbanded, as PennDOT begins an I-83 highway expansion project that will impact the area, city officials have shared. However, neither the city nor PennDOT have yet announced a plan or information about where those people will relocate.

Nonprofits in the city dedicated to assisting the unhoused are stretched thin, as Draisey-Crocenzi has seen. Darrel Reinford, director of Christian Churches United of the Tri County Area (CCU), which services the homeless, agreed, adding that “resources are always stretched.”

Right now, CCU needs to find landlords who are willing to work with them to house lower-income residents, Reinford said.

The way Draisey-Crocenzi sees it, it’s time for the community to get involved.

“Everybody’s overworked, everybody’s stretched to the brink. It’s time for individual people now to make a difference,” she said. “There are a lot of resources, for sure, and everybody is working to full capacity, but they are just overwhelmed […] It’s going to take individual people actually not turning their back on the situation and doing something.”

Still, Reinford said that he would encourage people interested in helping to consult or work with an established service provider to make sure they understand the need and how to best address it.

Draisey-Crocenzi feels that her lived experience has helped her to uniquely understand and care for those she’s serving. She’s been through the food lines; she was on the receiving end of help from a landlord. When there was a scourge of overdose deaths in Harrisburg one weekend last September, “everybody knew somebody that died,” she said.

So, when a man comes into her shop with two pairs of shoes to sell, she kindly accepts them, pays him and offers him a free drink and snack while she pulls cash from the drawer.

“They know that they can come here, and I will give them the money, and they won’t have to steal,” she said. “If you’re trying to be a decent person, it’s very hard out here. They don’t want to steal.”

Draisey-Crocenzi has to make money to keep the store operating, but so far, that hasn’t been an issue, she said. She has also solicited help from the community through posts on Facebook asking for donations of furniture for people’s apartments. Some people also drop off donations of clothing or water at the store, and she welcomes it.

She wishes that more would be done on a local or state level, but she’s not going to sit around waiting for it. She sees the suffering each day from her shop. So, she keeps the door open.

“You can’t change the world,” she said. “But you can change a couple people’s whole worlds.”

Treasure Trove Toy Store is located at 304 N. 2nd St., Harrisburg. For more information, visit their Facebook page.

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