As reported on KVMR, Dec. 14, 2018:
Hospitality House has had a long-term vision of providing permanent supportive housing. Given the challenge of finding permanent homes for our homeless Nevada County residents, coupled with the scarcity of available housing in general, this is a real need in our community. This past Tuesday, the Nevada County Board of Supervisors voted unanimously to make Hospitality House their No Place Like Home partner. This is a tremendous opportunity for us to grow with the County and to help provide permanent housing to many of the homeless folks in our community. We truly appreciate the County’s vote of confidence and partnership in this effort.
For those who may not be aware, No Place Like Home is a statewide funding initiative made possible by Governor Brown. It was Prop 2 on the November ballot and Californians passed it with nearly a 64 percent approval rate. The program is slated to dedicate up to $2 billion dollars in bond proceeds over the next several years to invest in the development of permanent supportive housing for people who are in need of mental health services and who are experiencing homelessness, or who are at-risk for chronic homelessness. With the County choosing us as its partner, Hospitality House and Nevada County are teaming up to apply for this funding with a goal to build housing right here in Nevada County.
Once people are in truly permanent housing—this is housing that we hope to build with the County leading the charge—then nonprofits such as Hospitality House can assist with “wraparound” services, including addiction counseling, medical care, child care and parenting, education, financial planning, nutrition education, job training and placement assistance, college admissions help, and other services which are extremely difficult to provide reliably without long-term stability. This is also why we are proud to now be offering easy access shelter, meaning anyone who may be struggling with addiction or related problems on the street can seek shelter with us immediately and get support from our team to get back on track and into housing. We can’t help them with their addiction if they are not able to work with us. We talked about our street outreach program the last time I was here and this is where outreach really makes a difference.
Our street outreach team met a couple earlier this year, Danny and Louise, who through a series of events, found themselves homeless. They weren’t interested in taking shelter at Utah’s Place or following our house rules, but our outreach team continued to support them by offering services, such as driving Louise to much needed doctor’s appointments. In time, they began to really trust us and as we built upon that trust, we and our community partners were able to do more for them. In fact, the day before Thanksgiving, we moved them into a trailer. They’re housed!
A big thank you to our community partners who help make this possible. We’re all on the same team and with the potential of building new housing, we’ll be able to do that much more and reach that many more people who need our help. We also envision opening a day center where homeless people can be welcomed off the street and connected with essential resources aimed at helping them regain their self-sufficiency and improving their quality of life.
Listen to the full interview here: