Bridge to Home selects new leader
Prior to being chosen for spot, Mike Foley helmed national nonprofit’s Los Angeles chapter
Bridge to Home has a new leader at its helm: newly named Executive Director Mike Foley.
The man who served as executive director for HomeAid’s Los Angeles chapter is now at the helm of Santa Clarita Valley’s flagship homeless shelter.
HomeAid is a national nonprofit provider that links the building industry with service providers to create lower-cost homeless shelters and housing.
“We are delighted,” Bridge to Home President Peggy Edwards said Thursday. “He has all the experience and background that we’ve been looking for.”
As the issue of homelessness intensifies not only in Santa Clarita, but also across the county and across the state, the Bridge to Home directors have not slowed in their efforts to confront it.
“We had a search committee go out at the end of July,” Edwards said.
And, while they were looking for the right type of leader, they pressed ahead in search of the funds that would enable Bridge to Home to go year-round.
No one was picking up the office phone Thursday, since volunteers and staffers are busy moving to into newly acquired space.
“We’ve outgrown our office,” Edwards said. “We’re in the process today of moving all our furniture and a lot of new, donated furniture.”
Once he closed out of his office in L.A., Foley quietly took the helm of Bridge to Home.
“His preference was to have no press release,” Edwards said. “He wanted to enter our community at his own pace, without a big announcement.
“He didn’t want it to be about him,” she said.
The city of Santa Clarita, however, issued a news release late Thursday announcing city officials were delighted with the appointment.
Prior to joining HomeAid, Foley was the founder and chief executive officer of Dignity1+ and served as the executive director of the Hollywood YMCA.
With experience in all facets of homeless, youth and family social service delivery, Foley is expected to oversee “all aspects of the organization as we evolve to a 24/7 year-round, permanent facility (and) expand our case management services and community partnerships.”
Foley plans to spend the first few months with Bridge to Home immersing himself in the community and getting to know the wide universe of stakeholders.
HomeAid is a national nonprofit provider of housing for the homeless. It builds and renovates multi-unit shelters for America’s homeless families and individuals through local chapters in 17 markets across the country, each working with the local building industry to give back to the community.
It was founded in 1989 by the Orange County chapter of the Building Industry Association of Southern California, an affiliate of the National Association of Home Builders.