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’d like to share a story of a guest that we will call Nathan. Nathan was referred to our Recuperative Care program from Dignity Health – Sierra Nevada Memorial Hospital. Nathan was the victim of a house fire recently and he sustained serious smoke inhalation damage to his lungs. Nathan was intubated and on a ventilator in our local ICU for several days. This all happened during the initial onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Nathan gradually recovered enough to be discharged from the hospital. However, Nathan was still very weak and he had no home to go to. As such, he became a candidate for the hospital to do a direct referral to us at Hospitality House to allow him to go into our Recuperative Care dorm. A few days later, when Nathan was strong enough, we went with him to his now burned house to triage through his savable belongings before the house demolition was scheduled to occur. Ultimately, Nathan had recovered enough to move his cherished belongings into storage and then to go on to live with a friend here in town.
The value of having this Recuperative Care program, in cooperation with Dignity Health – Sierra Nevada Memorial Hospital, is that it offers a much needed medical respite for many homeless individuals who have had an acute medical episode, but cannot continue staying at the hospital and may not meet criteria for going to a skilled nursing facility. These folks often still need some degree of medical respite care. We are glad to be able to help people like Nathan, by providing a safe place to recover. Nathan had only become homeless due to the house fire.
It’s a lesson for all of us that life can change drastically after any kind of crisis, and support from one another can make whole difference on the road to physical and mental recovery for any person.
If you are listening right now and want to help, now is the time. Local community members have come forward to help Hospitality House during the pandemic by offering an incredible donation match opportunity. Through May 31, all monetary donations made to Hospitality House will be matched by these individuals, dollar for dollar, up to $25,000. This means a gift of $10 automatically becomes $20 and will give 20 people struggling with homelessness each a hot and healthy meal.
A $50 donation will help one person in crisis like Nick receive a night of emergency shelter with wraparound services, such as food, clothing, job training, mental health counseling, transportation to medical, and customized case management to return to stable housing, on top of supplies and the support needed to make it through the pandemic. But community members who make their $50 donation by May 31 will automatically have their gift doubled and help two people right now.
To help people in crisis during the pandemic, donations may be made online at hhshelter.org, or by mail at 1262 Sutton Way, Grass Valley, CA 95945. Donations will be doubled through May 31!
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, and Chef Chris is safely cooking all meals instead. We’d like to thank Unitarian Universalist Community of the Mountains, Divine Light Spiritist Center, Unity in the Gold Country Spiritual Center, Seasoned with Love, Choppers, The Home Team, and Grass Valley Seventh-day Adventist Church for all their help. I’d also like to give a shoutout to Friar Tuck’s Restaurant and Bar and Interfaith Food MinistryI, SPD Markets, and Food Bank of Nevada County for all their help this week too. 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…
• Shampoo and conditioner
• Tylenol (not ibuprofen)
• Gloves
• Masks
• Adult coloring books
• Colored pens and pencils
• Any crafts that can be done by one person
• Deodorant
• Bleach
• Liquid hand soap
• Shaving Cream
• Women’s underwear
• One special request: Guitar strings and guitar picks to help our guests play some music!
Please drop off urgent items to Utah’s Place, located in Brunswick Basin, past the DMV, at 1262 Sutton Way. 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 certainty. If we all stick together, we’ll get what we need. Thank you!