As reported on KVMR, June 12
Hospitality House is the only emergency homeless shelter in Nevada County, with 69 beds for homeless men, women and children.
I’m Fred Skeen, and I’m a Case Manager at Hospitality House, helping individuals in our shelter with their next steps to move from homelessness to housing.
I want to share with you all the story of a guest who I will call Michael. Michael is 60-years old, an artist and father of two children. Michael came back to our shelter two weeks ago, and we have been working with him for three years now, but he is getting weaker. He has been suffering from degenerative neck disk disease for 20-years, causing narrowing of his neck disks. This disease also causes weakness of the arms and leg paralysis. In the last two years his disease has progressed to the point that he urgently needs a better living environment that can meet his medical needs.
One of Michael’s characteristics, which is a good trait is that he is constantly seeking his independence, to the point that he thinks he can cross the Yuba river or go anywhere but he uses an electrical wheelchair and has limited mobility. He comes to the shelter for a while and then it becomes evident that his level of care is beyond the services that we offer. His health has deteriorated for a variety of reasons; he gets admitted to our local hospital, then gets transferred to a skilled facility home, and finally ends up in a boarding care-home where he shares the space with four to eight other residents. The problem with these facilities is that they are very crowded, and they don’t usually have access for electric chairs or are not allowed in the facility. Michael then has too push himself around the home and his arms are weak due to his illness. Once Michael recovers, he leaves the care-home facility seeking for independence and the cycle of deterioration and recovery starts all over again.
We want to help him obtain his independence, and what would be ideal for Michael is a room to rent, a room that offers basic ADA wheelchair accessibility. He doesn’t own a vehicle and his income comes from social security retirement and disability benefits. He is self-sufficient in many other ways, and if we can get him in-home support services for a couple or three times a week to assist him with bathing and prepping meals that will provide him with the medical help and independence that he so much seeks.
If anyone listening right now might have an interest in helping individuals by renting a room, studio, apartment or house I invite you to call me today. I can be reached directly at 530-559-5411.
Hospitality House would like to introduce the community to its newest member! The Voyager, a 2017 silver Nissan Frontier 4×4 truck.
Voyager joins the team, thanks exclusively to an anonymous local donor who saw a need for the shelter to have 4×4 transportation and responded with a generous donation to make it possible.
With the acquisition of Voyager, the Hospitality House Street Outreach Team will deliver emergency supplies to remote camps typically inaccessible; will help homeless campers move out of the forest with all their belongings; will transport people to the hospital if needed; and will use the truck to further camp cleanup efforts for fire mitigation.
Hospitality House would also like to extend its gratitude to United Way of Nevada County. They donated Hospitality House’s Homeless Access Transportation van in fall 2018, and also instrumental in researching and assessing 4×4 truck options that best meet the needs of Hospitality House.
This past week, we were blessed by many caring individuals who prepared meals and we are beyond grateful. I’d like to give a big thank you to Sierra Nevada Memorial Hospital, Nevada City United Methodist Church, Saint Patrick Church, Mountain Stream Meditation, Kitchen CutUps, The Home Team, and Repeat Offenders. To everyone who donated our most needed items last week, thank you as well!
Now down to the nitty gritty needs of the shelter for this week…
- Ink pens
- Razors
- Suave deodorant
- Blankets
- Hospital type- wipe down pillows
- Men’s jeans, sizes 34 – 36
- Men’s T-shirts, sizes M and L
- Boxers, sizes M & L
- Poison oak medication
Please drop off urgent items to Utah’s Place, located in Brunswick Basin, past the DMV, at 1262 Sutton Way. For all other donations that may benefit a homeless guest or the shelter in general, please take them to the backdoor of Bread & Roses, our thrift shop, located at 840 E. Main Street, directly next door to Sierra Cinemas. Guests at our shelter are given shopping vouchers for the store to buy what they need, so your donation directly helps them. All other items are sold with 100% of the sales supporting the shelter’s operations. Thank you for sticking together so that we all get what we need.