Hollister
– Staff and volunteers are busy getting the county’s homeless
shelter ready to open this month, beginning what will be the
shelter’s second year in service.
Hollister – Staff and volunteers are busy getting the county’s homeless shelter ready to open this month, beginning what will be the shelter’s second year in service.
“We have no idea how many people will be there or what will happen, but we want to be ready,” said Leigh Dietz, shelter manager.
The shelter, which is housed at the labor camp off Southside Road, will open the Monday after Thanksgiving on Nov. 27.
“We would like to open earlier, but money is an issue,” Dietz said. “This is the date we were supposed to open on last year, but we were delayed. That’s the date they use (at the homeless shelter) in Gilroy, and it seems to work pretty well.”
Hollister’s shelter is based closely off a model used to great effect in Gilroy. Six dorm rooms from the migrant worker camp property off Southside Road have been converted into one large room for the shelter, which has been furnished with bunk beds. The shelter opens at 6pm and accepts people until 9:30pm, a half hour before lights-out. Those using the shelter’s facilities will be bussed back into town at 6am, and the shelter will be open until mid-March.
“As long as there’s someone sleeping out in the street, there’s a need for this,” said Kathy Ruiz, homeless task force chair. “We can give them a hot shower and a home-cooked meal now. We’re helping our fellow man.”
The shelter can house up to 24 people in bunk beds each night, though Dietz said she is anticipating between 10 and 12 people will come out on the 27th.
“They can be nervous at first, and we know that,” she said. “They have to know the police won’t be here waiting to drag them off.”
Last year 77 people used the shelter at one point or another, the vast majority of them locals, although a few used the shelter as a resting place en route to another city. Dietz estimated that 75 percent of the people served were male, averaging around 36 or 40 years of age. In order to qualify for certain grants, the shelter is not allowed to take in anyone younger than 18.
“They have different reasons for being here,” Dietz said. “Some of them – I won’t lie to you, and they won’t lie to you – are out there because they want to be. For others it’s a Catch-22 sort of situation; they can’t get a job because they have no permanent address, they can’t get ID, that sort of thing.”
Last year many of the clients were able to use the shelter’s services to find apartments or alternative living situations, Dietz said, so the shelter knows a good portion of them won’t be coming back. On the other hand, she knew there were many newly homeless people in town, and at least three of the people who had spent time at the shelter last year had died over the spring and summer.
“That’s why we need a shelter all year round, so we can take care of these folks,” she said.
Shelter staff and volunteers will be trying a few new things this year to ensure that operations run more smoothly.
“We’re starting a client volunteer program this year,” Dietz said. “The way that works is that we pick one male and female and they’re guaranteed a bed, but they have certain duties attached. The idea is to get them back into the routine of working and responsibility.”
The shelter will also be offering free medical and dental services, in addition to the free behavior, health, substance abuse and veterans’ services offered last year.
In the future, the homeless task force hopes to establish transition housing, similar to a program currently used in Gilroy.
“Transition housing is for the people to stay there a little bit longer, help them get back on their feet a little bit better,” said Ruiz. “They can stay there all day and take language or job skill classes, whatever it takes to get them out on their own.”
Dietz said the shelter is always looking for goods and volunteers. Right now the shelter is in particular need of paper goods and other disposable items – toilet paper, paper towels, garbage bags and sandwich baggies. Volunteers are also needed to help prepare and serve meals.
“The fact that we had 77 people use this shelter says a lot,” Dietz said. “And there are so many people out there who are a month away from being homeless, who are living two or three families to a garage. There’s a real need in this community.”
For more information, or to volunteer or donate call Dietz at 801-9531.
Danielle Smith covers education for the Free Lance. Reach her at 637-5566, ext. 336 or [email protected].
