As reported on KVMR, on 2/1/19
Hospitality House is the only emergency homeless shelter in Nevada County, with 69 beds for homeless men, women and children.
Hi, I’m Rob Barker, Outreach Liaison at Hospitality House. I’m also a certified Alcohol and Drug Counselor. I work closely with businesses, and our homeless neighbors in Nevada County.
I want to share a story with you all, of a woman that I will call, Mary. Mary is in her late 50s, and currently lives in the woods, exposing her to a high vulnerability. I was able to meet Mary through our outreach program. I have been in contact with Mary for months, and our goal is to bring Mary to the shelter one day. She needs a safe place to eat, sleep, and hopefully we can provide her with more resources needed for her to achieve a full recovery one day.
It takes time to build trust with individuals that have been without a home for so long. For example, it took me about five months to gain Mary’s trust, and for her to say “yes” to help, and this was just the beginning of her road to recovery. Once she accepted help, we were able to refer her to other resources like Behavioral Health, who provide mental health and substance abuse treatment services through Nevada County.
We, staff at Hospitality House, are facilitators of many of the wraparound services for substance abuse and mental health services for our guests, and for those that still don’t have a roof over their head. We are continuously working in providing wraparound services in collaboration with other organizations such as Freed, Behavioral Health, Community Beyond Violence and Spirit House. Our outreach team works closely with people who are not our guests, but with people that live in the woods, parks and in other location around the County.
We are so thankful to have a van that allows us take people like Mary to her medical appointments, as transportation is not that accessible around here. We try to spread the Good Neighbor policy while helping people find the resources they need. Most of our work is to provide people like Mary with the right wraparound services for each unique homeless neighbor.
You can support our efforts by shopping at our thrift store, Bread & Roses. We are offering a 10% off every Tuesday, to seniors ages 55 and up, and to active military or veterans. Please bring proper identification for the discount to apply. All proceeds benefit Hospitality House Community Shelter.
A big thank you to the all the volunteer dinner groups who made dinner for 69 hungry folks every night this past week: Telestream, Saint Patrick’s Church, Emergency Team, Simple Truth Church and First Baptist Church of Nevada County.
A big shout out to everyone who dropped off needed donation items last week – thank you! Now down to the nitty gritty needs of the shelter for this week . . .
Items needed for our shelter guests:
- Yoga mats, for our new yoga class starting in February!
- Travel size toiletries
- Shampoos
- Rain ponchos
- Umbrellas
- Depends (adult, pull-ups) medium & large
- Chux (bed protector pads)
- Men’s jeans 34-38
Drop-off needed items at Utah’s Place, located in Brunswick Basin, past the DMV, at 1262 Sutton Way. If we all stick together, we’ll get what we need. Thank you!