Hospitality House logo Hospitality House of Western Nevada County
      A Community Shelter for the Homeless
The mission of Hospitality House is to provide the homeless with a compassionate place of rest, sustenance, dignity, and hope.

 

Please CONTRIBUTE

Be part of our community effort and give generously so we can continue our services! You can write a check and send it to our address below, or click on the PayPal button to have your debit or credit card charged. Where will my money go?


(No Paypal account needed.)

A Great Way to Make Donations to
Hospitality House:
Make a monthly donation using a direct transfer from your bank account to the Hospitality House bank account.
Doing so does away with the bother of writing and mailing checks and saves us admnistration costs and credit card processing fees.
You will receive an email confirmation of your donation on the date it is made.
You can stop the transfer process at any time.
Call Cindy or Michelle at 530-271-7144, or email Michelle at
MichelleRose.hh@gmail.com 
for details.

Please remember us in your WILLS and TRUSTS. For details, please call or email us.

Gift Cards for donations in your name to friends are now available at the Hospitality House shelter.
Click here to see a sample.

Make checks to:
HOSPITALITY HOUSE
P.O. Box 3223, Grass Valley, CA 95945
 

All contributions are tax-deductible.
Hospitality House is a nonprofit public benefit corporation organized for the specific purpose of providing assistance to the homeless.

Hospitality House is exempt from Federal income tax under section 501 (c) (3) of the Internal Revenue Code and exempt from state franchise or income tax under code section 23701d of the California Revenue and Taxation Code.

IMPORTANT MESSAGES!

The Fall/Winter schedule at the Hospitality House Welcome Center has commenced and overnight shelters have resumed.

Open a full six weeks earlier than in the past, thanks to a federal grant extending the season to nine months per year, this is the shelter's sixth season. Hours are 1 to 5 p.m.; check-in is 1 to 4 p.m. daily.

Overnight shelter and meals during the winter months are graceously supplied by over 25 faith communities.

Transportation is provided from the Welcome Center to the host church each evening.

If you have any questions please call us at 530-271-7144.

If you would like to be added to our mailing list, please send us your name and address using this contact.

Besides money there are other small things you can donate,
some of which are needed desperately.
See our Wish List
and our Volunteers page.

Volunteer training for the fall/winter 2010 season
TODAY - August 24th at 5 to 9 p.m.

New and previously active volunteers to attend.
Go to volunteer page for details.

EVENT NEWS

THANKS TO ALL WHO MADE THIS EVENT A HUGE SUCCESS

On Sunday, August 22nd at Empire Mine State Park, Grass Valley, CA

the 15th annual




and

Concert, Dining and Art Auction was held as a benefit for
Hospitality House Community Shelter for the Homeless.


More about the concert and art exhibit click here

Hospitality House is now on Facebook
To visit our page click here

Nevada County now has 2-1-1
for our Health & Human Service Needs

Now people in Nevada County can dial the three digit number 2-1-1 and talk to a call specialist to help them out with all of their Health & Human Service needs. It became official on National 211 Day, February 11th, 2010. Please help us get the word out to everyone.

In addition to finding out about services on www.Dial211.com, anyone can call on a land line phone within Nevada County and receive free, confidential information and referral 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. 2-1-1 is available in 150 languages and for any disability. Cell phones will be able to access 2-1-1 in the near future.

Thank you for supporting 2-1-1 Nevada County!

NEWS

Hospitality House now has a house band named
Home Free


Home Free performing at the Spirit Center spring fundraiser, June 2010.
If you are interested in finding out more about Home Free and their bookings
please contact Hospitality House during normal business hours.

CLICK HERE to see photos of the 2010 Volunteer Party

Hospitality House Community Shelter Marches for
Affordable Housing
The march was organized by WRAP (Western Regional Advocacy Project)

Read the article in The Union here (2/7/2010).

On Wednesday, 1/20/2010, a group from Hospitality House traveled to San Francisco.



Photo Credit: Tom Durkin

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR'S REPORT

It's hard to imagine we're already through our winter shelter season. The number of nightly guests has quickly grown to 35-40 guests per night. The Welcome Center is alive with activity each day as guests trickle in, often times soaking wet from the series of recent storms. They are welcomed by our awesome lunch bunch and given hot soup, an endless supply of treats and a warm smile.

I love to watch the guests come in from the cold and enjoy their warm meal. It feels just like home until I glance down and see all the wet shoes they are wearing. I realize most of what they own is in a little plastic bin in the next room, and the wet shoes on their feet are the only shoes they own. But fear not, we have some creative thinkers among us. All around good guy and bus steward John Mackey brought in a boot dryer. Now guests can dry their shoes before putting on clean socks.

Since I'm on a shoe kick, have you ever wondered what happens to people that are looking for work, have no car, and no place to be for 5 hours a day? Yep, they walk and walk and walk. I thought my teenage son went through shoes fast, but our guests have him beat hands down. It's not uncommon for them to come in with wet shoes, but it's even more heartbreaking when they have holes in the bottom of those shoes.

On the bright side, our volunteers and supporters are the BEST. If we have someone with a need like this we just put the need out there and shoes appear. Our wonderful board member Joanna Robinson asked for a pair of size 12 boots during her Friday morning KVMR interview and before she was off the air a pair of size 12 boots appeared at the studio. WOW.

Thanks to all of our faithful volunteers and faith communities, we served almost 20,000 meals to our homeless in 2009. What an enormous undertaking and incredible accomplishment for our community. The best part is every single meal was served with a generous spirit and a caring heart, and this was not lost on our guests. I heard a story from a guest a few weeks ago about how this last Thanksgiving with us was the first holiday he'd spend with anyone in 20 years. How amazing it is that as we serve, we are touching people in ways we can't even begin to imagine.

Hospitality House provided shelter to 279 individuals in 2009, which includes 9 children and 32 veterans. We provided 5353 bed nights to our guests and 3420 drop-ins by our former guests. Hospitality House has a policy of continuing to help former guest who have obtained housing by allowing them continued case management, food, and friendship. We believe helping our guests to find housing is only the first step, retaining that housing is vital to their long term success.

We continue to have free weekly medical exams for our guests thanks to Dr. Frank Lang Jr. and Dr. Chirstine Newsome.  This is a wonderful benefit to not only our guests, but our entire community as it relives the need for many of our folks without medical insurance from having to visit the Emergency Room at the hospital.

We also owe our thanks and gratitude to our volunteer nurses, Fred Skeen, Jane Hall, and Lynn Schweissinger for giving even more of their time and skill to provide on-site H1N1 vaccines to our guests. An amazing 26 guests opted to get the vaccine during our first round a few days ago. A special thank you to Jeff Brown, Dr. Millman and staff at our Public Health Department for providing us with the vaccine and materials that allowed us to provide this for our guests at the Welcome Center.

Finally, I'm excited to share the news that because of a recent grant awarded to Hospitality House, we are extending our shelter season. This means we will now be open from September 1 through May 31 for overnight shelter. We learned very quickly that the need for shelter doesn't change even during the warmer summer months. We are moving closer to our goal of year round shelter, but in order to reach that goal and to continue to meet the needs of our homeless, we need your continued support in the form of financial donations, meal donations, time, and every once in a while; shoes.

Cindy Maple, Executive Director, Hospitality House Community Shelter

If you want to make a difference in our community; please consider volunteering with Hospitality House. Leave a voicemail and call back number at 530-271-7144 stating that you wish to attend the next volunteer training session. To make a financial donation please mail a check to Hospitality House, P.O. Box 3223, Grass Valley, CA 95945.

Other Voices: Hospitality House offers much more than just food and shelter
The Union, Saturday, May 8th, 2010

Gil Scott-Heron's new CD with "I'll Take Care of You"
LISTEN HERE

Capital Public Radio's Jeffrey Callison talks with Hospitality House Director Cindy Maple
on the homeless in rural California counties.
Click here to listen (the interview is about 2/3 thorugh the broadcast. You can slide the button to that point).
12/14/2009

Other Voices: Safety, dignity for local homeless
from the pages of The Union Newspaper 11/11/09

Hospitality House Receives $200,000 Federal Grant
($100,000 a year for two years
)
from The Union newspaper, 10/15/09
and on Yubanet.com website

and in the Nevada City Advocate

Hospitality House - Know your Nonprofit
The Union newspaper - 9/14/2009
"Hospitality House welcomes the homeless, hungry"

PERPETUAL PROCEEDS FROM SALES OF
AN ORIGINAL CROCHET DESIGN DONATED
TO HOSPITALITY HOUSE

CrochetMemories.com has recently added a new and original crochet design to their website that will benefit Hospitality House.

Copies of the pattern, entitled "Praying Hands," are for sale at CrochetMemories.com. Quarterly, the Hospitality House will receive 75% of the gross sales income. The remaining 25% is kept by the website provider to cover their expenses.

The piece was designed by our own Nevada County Treasurer & Tax Collector, E. Christina Dabis. Thank you Chris for your thoughtfulness and your lovely crochet work.

Check out here illustrated story of our first year. Photos, anecdotes, portraits ... people coming together in a true community spirit.

Hospitality House Co-Founder Utah Phillips
tribute album nominated for Grammy

The legacy of Utah Phillips lives on: a tribute album to the late folk music legend, who spent the last 21 years of his life in Nevada City has been nominated for a Grammy.
The Union newspaper, 12/4/2009

The California Report notes Nevada County Homeless Count on many radio stations (listen here) and, for an update on 1/23 listen and wait for the second article here