As reported on KVMR: 

Hospitality House is the only emergency homeless shelter in Nevada County, with 69 beds for homeless men, women and children.

I’m Rob Barker and I’m a Community Liaison at Hospitality House. When I first started doing outreach, Bonnie was one of the first homeless people I met. She was newly homeless, and I watched her circle down in alcohol. Around the holidays, she started thinking she needed help and I was there for her. I took her to Nevada County Behavioral Health and then we moved her into an inpatient treatment facility to get her help with addiction.

Unfortunately, Bonnie didn’t last, and I found her on the streets soon offer. I continued to offer her support every time I saw her. It takes time to build trust with someone on the streets—it’s continued conversations—continued engagement. We don’t give up. Eventually, Bonnie came back to me and said she was ready.

Bonnie recently completed three weeks of substance abuse treatment with a group and this past Monday, she re-enrolled in inpatient treatment. I don’t know if this will be it for Bonnie, but I’ll be her support through and through. My job focus is to provide outreach to people struggling and to let them know we’re here and we want to help. My relationship with Bonnie is so strong today that I’m now listed as her only emergency contact.

Caring people in the community make what we do possible and if you’d like to support us, we warmly invite you to make a gift to those in need by going to hhshelter.org right now. Another way to help others like Bonnie is to shop at our thrift store, Bread & Roses. 100% of every sale goes toward our effort to get more people connected to services and housing. And tomorrow we are giving you 50% off our entire store! No exclusions! Doors open early at 10 a.m.

Mark your calendars for May 30, too! We’re hosting a camp cleanup and we need volunteers. If you might have an interest in helping, visit our website at hhshelter.org for details.

This past week, we were blessed by many caring individuals. I’d like to give a big thank you to Wolf Creek Lodge Cohousing Association, Telestream, the Emergency Team, TCC Blessed Sisters, the Home Team, and Crossroads Church for coming out to cook. A big thank you also to First Baptist Church for planting our garden this past weekend and to BriarPatch for donating the seeds and starts, and Rare Earth for gifting the compost. We are grateful to all of you, and of course, everyone who donated needed items.

Now down to the nitty gritty needs of the shelter for this week…

  • Men’s boxers, sizes M & L
  • Men’s jeans, size 34/34
  • Men’s t-shirts, size L & XL
  • Sweat pants, sizes M & L
  • Men’s sneakers, sizes 11, 12, 13
  • Women’s t-shirts, sizes L & XL
  • Women’s sneakers, size 7, 8 & 10
  • Sunscreen
  • Technu poison oak medicine
  • Cough drops

Please drop off urgent items to Utah’s Place, located in Brunswick Basin, past the DMV, at 1262 Sutton Way. For all other donations that may benefit a homeless guest or the shelter in general, please take them to the backdoor of Bread & Roses, our thrift shop, located at 840 E Main Street, directly next door to Sierra Cinemas. Guests at our shelter are given shopping vouchers for the store to buy what they need, so your donation directly helps them. All other items are sold with 100% of the sales supporting the shelter’s operations. Thank you for sticking together so that we all get what we need.

What will your legacy inspire? Find out how you can create lasting impact today>