We can do more for those in need
There are things most of us take for granted
– a warm bed when it’s cold and wet outside; a snack at hand
when we are hungry; a safe place for ourselves and our children.
But there are people in San Benito County who struggle for these
things daily.
We can do more for those in need
There are things most of us take for granted – a warm bed when it’s cold and wet outside; a snack at hand when we are hungry; a safe place for ourselves and our children. But there are people in San Benito County who struggle for these things daily. In the two years the San Benito County Homeless shelter has opened its doors from late November through March, more than 130 people have stayed there. Some stayed for just one night, while others slept in the beds each evening for an entire season. The shelter provided not just a bed, but a late evening dinner, an early morning breakfast and a bag lunch to take for the day. Staff and volunteers connected visitors with drug and alcohol counseling, legal aid and job training. Doug Emerson, a member of the task force that helped start the seasonal shelter two years ago, said 60 percent of the people who have stayed at the shelter have moved on to some type of housing.
Last year Emmaus House opened its doors to women and children in need of a safe place from domestic violence. Since they opened, 68 women and 83 children have stayed at the home. The majority of the residents were victims of domestic violence, and less than 20 percent were women and children who were homeless – the homeless shelter can only take in men.
As with the homeless shelter, the women’s home has a small staff that is helped along by volunteers. In addition to job training and transportation to interviews, volunteers provide some fun activities for residents. Volunteers read stories to the children and artists have come in to work with the women. One volunteer brings in party supplies and helps the moms plan for children’s birthdays.
Both agencies have plans to expand their services so they can better serve the people who stay with them and prepare them to stay out of the situations that brought them to the shelters in the first place. The Homeless shelter would like to move to a new location where it can offer year-round services – it shares a facility at the migrant camp now.
But both these agencies are in jeopardy of not being able to stay open at all. They did not receive a federal emergency grant. Emmaus House has enough money to complete this fiscal year – through June 2008. The homeless shelter is $20,000 short of the $75-80,000 needed to stay open through March.
The county Board of Supervisors has said if there is a shortfall, they would be willing to support the agencies in the short-term, and Dale Yarmouth, the director of the Emmaus House, and Emerson, of the Homeless task force, are both looking at alternate funds from grants. But these funding sources are a band-aid for problems that are very real in San Benito County.
While most of us take for granted our warm beds, hot meals and day-to-day safety, these shelters are a necessity for others.
To do the best they can, the Homeless shelter and Emmaus House need more than enough money to make ends meet through the season. They need more volunteers and they need more money. For those of us who take so much for granted, couldn’t we offer a little more to those in need?
