She calls the homeless who stay at her shelter her “homies.”
That’s what Executive Director Cindy Parr of the San Benito County Homeless Coalition refers to the up to 80 homeless or displaced persons who use her facility every year in Hollister – a shelter that is open seasonally from Nov. 1 through March 31 because the organization lacks a permanent place of its own, just like the homeless it serves.
Parr is currently looking for a more permanent facility in the Northgate area of the city. San Benito County is only one of two counties in the area, along with Santa Clara County, which does not have a permanent homeless shelter, according to Parr.
She said the community is what keeps the organization afloat. The coalition gets about 300 volunteers a year from the community.
Local churches such as Sunnyslope Christian Center and Grace Bible Church, among others, offer free meals every Tuesday and Thursday to the homeless. Other churches provide material help through clothes and other items, as well as places for the homeless to take showers.
Recent funds made available through the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, provided through the department’s homeless management and continuum of care services, has provided the Coalition enough funds to help 12 homeless families and individuals find permanent housing.
In June 2013, the state gave more than $11.5 million in Emergency Solutions Grants to help shelters and other organizations in each county provide emergency shelter, street outreach, and homelessness prevention to the homeless. The Homeless Coalition received $133,000 from the state.
As of right now, the Coalition has helped about 15 homeless move into eight units in the city, with three more expected to be housed by February. The newly housed include at least two families and several children, as part of the Coalition’s “Helping Hands” program.
“Kids deserve a fighting chance at life,” Parr said.
Parr and her organization have conducted surveys that estimate there are roughly 2,000 homeless individuals and families in the county.
She said that the number of homeless in the county has gone up since she started working for the shelter. She said her organization, along with a company called Applied Survey Research, counted about 193 homeless individuals in 2011 in San Benito County; in 2013, that number rose to 365.
Parr hopes to ramp up fundraising for the organization, especially with its two signature fundraising events, Jazz Under The Stars, a food and wine tasting event, and Birdies for Charity, a golf tournament sponsored by the Monterey Peninsula Foundation.
Parr said the organization has raised more than $3,000 this year compared with last year at these events.
On Oct. 5, the Homeless Coalition will be hosting a “cook’s meeting” at 3239 Southside Road from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. in order to help the homeless.
