Coast Winter Shelter location still in doubt
FORT BRAGG » The Hospitality Center is very grateful to the Trinity Lutheran Church for hosting the Winter Shelter this year and for their recent agreement to extend the operation into the middle of March. It is also grateful for its partnership with the broader faith community in providing additional support and meals for winter shelter guests, and to the City of Fort Bragg for their assistance in enhancing the wages of Winter Shelter staff that allowed the operation to proceed.
The decision about where the Coast Winter Shelter will be housed in the final two weeks of March is still being discussed. While an announcement was made by Mayor Norvell at the Jan. 25 meeting of the Fort Bragg City Council that the Mendocino Coast Jewish Community had agreed to the use of its shul in Caspar for that purpose, arrangements have not yet been made for the location by the Hospitality Center.
The Hospitality Center is very grateful for the Jewish community’s generosity and historic ongoing support for the Winter Shelter program. But the fact is that the Caspar Shul is a difficult location for the shelter due to the added COVID-19 safety measures, particularly in regard to transportation, and given its distance from Fort Bragg, safely transporting guests to Caspar is more impractical and a greater burden. MCHC is continuing to look for a more convenient location and will share those results as soon as the decision has been made.
Meanwhile, the Coast Winter Shelter continues into its second month of operation.
As of Jan. 31, out of 39 individuals who have signed up, 21 have taken shelter there. The number of people actually using a bed has averaged five per night, and 160 in total.
These numbers are considerably lower than in previous years.
The reasons for this are not certain, but anecdotally it appears that some people have left the area; many individuals received pandemic stimulus checks in January, giving them the funds to secure other types of lodging; and the COVID-19 protocols, have deterred some of those who have a hard time complying with the more stringent rules.
The Mendocino Coast Hospitality Center expects the number of people using the shelter to increase in February as pandemic stimulus money runs out and the winter weather gets harsher.
For more information, contact: admin@mendocinochc.org or call 707961-0172 ext. 1100. If you have suggestions, questions, concerns or wish to contribute, please visit www.mendocinochc.org.