My name is Fred Skeen. I’m a case manager at Hospitality House. My job is to assist guests with qualifying for social services benefits, arranging medical care referrals, and eventually getting them into independent housing. We make every effort to guide our guests in their transition from homelessness to self-sufficiency and housing.
We are currently sheltering a gentleman who I will call Monty. We have been providing services to this very congenial man since mid-May of this year. Monte is a longtime resident of Nevada County. He has worked his whole life in the construction trades. He has built and owned several homes in our area. Due to series of unfortunate injuries over the past three years, which impacted his ability to sustain employment, he lost nearly everything. In desperation, he ended up at Hospitality House. In very short order, we were able to offer wraparound case management services to secure his early retirement benefits from Social Security so that he now has a steady flow of income. Very recently he had to undergo an extensive abdominal surgery. Following surgery at Sierra Nevada Memorial Hospital, he was released back into our care through our Recuperative Care program, a program established with the hospital and County of Nevada, CA. This allowed Monty to be able to stay indoors all day to safely recover from this surgery. He is now feeling strong enough that we are trying to assist him with housing placement or even just a simple room to rent option. Monty needs and deserves a small place to call his home. He is agreeable to renting a room anywhere between Grass Valley and North San Juan. He is very capable of performing light maintenance and general chores as may be needed by a potential landlord. We are putting the word out to the local community to get Monty a room to rent this summer. If you can offer Monty a room to rent, please call me directly: Fred Skeen, RN Case Manager at (530) 559-5411. Monty has no immediate family in this area. Therefore, we are his family for the moment.
If you haven’t heard, Empty Bowl is back this September with a safe new format. Instead of a large gathering, patrons will visit a select restaurant to try a specialty dish and will keep an artisan bowl forever too (generously donated by local artists). Help people on their journey back to housing and support local businesses too. The restaurants participating are donating every meal to help make the event possible, so please patronize them. We’d like to thank Pawnie’s Home Care for being a first-time sponsor this year. Pawnie’s is a newer business in the area that specializes in helping you or a loved one maintain independence in your home. Thank you, Pawnies! For additional details about Empty Bowl please visit hhshelter.org/empty-bowl. Tickets on sale August 2 at 3 p.m.!
Normally at this time we thank all the cook groups who came and cooked over the last week, but to keep our shelter safe, our cook groups are supporting our meals by donating financial support and food instead. We’d like to thank Unitarian Universalist Community of the Mountains, Alta Sierra Latter-Day Saints, Divine Light Spiritist Center, Abundant Life Community Church, The Home Team and Seasoned with Love, BriarPatch Food Co-op and SPD Markets for all their recent help. To everyone who donated our most needed items last week, thank you as well!
Now, on to the needs of the shelter for this week are:
• Blankets and sheets, twin size
• New pillows
• Bottled water
• Bras, all sizes
• Men’s underwear/boxers, sizes M, L and XL
• Men’s shorts and jeans, sizes 32 and 34
• Women’s underwear, sizes S, M and L
• Shampoo and conditioner, travel size
• Men’s and Women’s deodorant
• Duffel bags and backpacks
Please drop off urgent items or mail them to Utah’s Place, located in Brunswick Basin, past the DMV, at 1262 Sutton Way in Grass Valley. For a tax receipt, please ring the doorbell and wait for someone to come outside to assist you. We greatly appreciate the community’s help at such times of uncertainty. In the words of Utah Phillips, “If we all stick together, we’ll get what we need.” Thank you!