My name is Sarah, and I am the victims of crime case manager here at Hospitality House. I work specifically with the homeless victims of crime, which is a common occurrence for a lot of our homeless population. I also assist our guests with qualifying for social services, benefits, and eventually getting them into independent housing. At Hospitality House, we make every effort to guide our guests in their transition from homelessness to self-sufficiency and housing.
I would like to share a story of a guest, who I will call Debbie. Debbie has struggled with substance abuse in the past and lost her housing due to this. As she began to get older, her priorities changed and started to shift towards staying sober and taking care of herself. She heard of Hospitality House through outside resources and decided to make a change for the better. Since staying here, Debbie has worked hard to stay committed to her sobriety. She has received assistance with social and human health services as well as transportation to and from important medical appointments. Just recently, Debbie had a major back surgery and fortunately, was able to then come back to Hospitality House and stay in one of our recuperative care rooms that allowed her the safe, quiet and clean environment needed for a successful healing process. We have been offering recuperative care since 2018 in partnership with Dignity Health Sierra Nevada Memorial Hospital and County of Nevada. Because of this program, Debbie is now healing and doing better and continues to work hard every day to secure permanent housing. If anyone has job openings or housing options for our guests here, please feel free to reach out to me, Sarah at (530)271-7144, thank you.
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. For additional details about Empty Bowl please visit hhshelter.org/empty-bowl. Tickets on sale this August!
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 cooking groups are supporting our meals by donating financial support and food and Chef Sandro and Chef Assistant Gina are safely cooking all meals instead. We’d like to thank Jazzercise, Crossroad Church, Twin Cities Church, Trinity Episcopal Church, Mountain Stream Meditation Center, The Home Team and Abundant Life Church, SPD Markets and BriarPatch Food Co-op for all their help. To everyone who donated our most needed items last week, thank you as well!
And 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
• Women’s underwear, sizes S, M and L (or 5,6,7 and 8)
• 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.