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.
The whole world is trying to adjust to this highly infectious pandemic with the Novel COVID-19 Coronavirus. But even with the pandemic, we continue to house guests. We are not stopping, and next week we will be housing an elderly guest that we will call Judy. We are glad to house Judy as she is considered high risk, because she is homeless and has COPD, a chronic lung disease that causes reduced airflow, which makes it hard to breathe. We feel relieved to house Judy, especially during these high at-risk times, and glad that she is moving just adjacent to her daughter’s house. This is all happening thanks to our community collaboration, and HOME team.
If you are listening from the comfort of your home, then you are blessed. Many folks in Nevada County are not so homebound—they are actually homeless. At Hospitality House, we are adjusting daily to the latest guidelines given to us from our state level and from our local public health department, to ensure the safety and wellbeing of all our homeless guests.
Here is just a sampling of some of the things we are doing to protect our guests:
1. We are taking everyone’s body temperature daily.
2. We are observing for any signs or symptoms of illness onset.
3. We have placed about a third of our shelter guests, those in the highest risk category of over age 65, and those with any significant underlying chronic health conditions, into nearby motels. This allows us to better ensure social distancing space between our in-house shelter guests. It also allows those in the motel setting to create their own self isolation.
Those interested in learning more about our emergency plans can see details at hhshelter.org.
While isolation and social distancing are the recommended first steps in mitigating the spread of any contagious entity, just think about the side effects of social isolation, such as anxiety, loneliness, and depression. We have case managers that are constantly checking in with all our guests both at the shelter and in our temporary motel annex. Some of our guests with long term behavioral health issues are very taxed and stressed to be so isolated. We refer folks for counseling during this crisis and welcome you to do the same. You can call CA Peer-Run hot line at 1-855-845-7415, which is a non-judgmental emotional peer support, available to anyone who needs it.
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, The Gourmet Squad, Meals by Heels, Peace Lutheran Grass Valley, CA, and Grass Valley Seventh-day Adventist Church for all their help. I’d also like to give a shoutout to The Oaks Club House, Friar Tuck’s Restaurant and Bar, Pete’s Pizza & Tap House, Interfaith Food Ministry @nevada city food bank Food Bank of Nevada County and Fable Coffee for donating needed items 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…
• Warm single blankets
• Women’s shoes and boots
• ear plugs
• Shelf stable sealed snacks
• Sugar and coffee
• 1-gallon freezer zip lock bags
• Ibuprofen
• Tylenol
• Cough drops
• Hand warmers
• Q-tips
• Deodorant
• Shampoo/conditioner
• Shaving cream
In addition to these urgently needed items, we are also actively collecting needed items to slow the spread of COVID-19. A few of these items include Airborn, disinfectant soap, disinfectant wipes, and disposable cleaning gloves. Please visit our website at hhshelter.org to see the full list. 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 all get what we need. Thank you!