APRIL 9, 2009 ISSUE
Groundbreaking in Sight for New Hospitality House Facility
Agency Secures Enough Funding To Begin Construction
A recent $600,000 grant from the N.C. Department of Commerce will allow the Hospitality House to break ground on a new $4.7 million shelter facility. The one-story, 18,500-square-foot building will be located off Bamboo Road at the corner of Brook Hollow Road and Health Center Drive.With the recent announcement of a $600,000 grant from the N.C. Department of Commerce, the Hospitality House of Boone has secured enough funding to move forward with groundbreaking on its new 18,500-square-foot shelter facility, to be located off Bamboo Road.
Last week, state Rep. Cullie Tarleton and Sen. Steve Goss announced that Hospitality House would receive a $600,000 Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) to be used for the construction of the new facility. The grant is administered through the Department of Commerce Division of Community Assistance. Watauga County applied for the grant on behalf of Hospitality House in 2008.
Hospitality House is a nonprofit crisis intervention agency that provides shelter and services to the homeless, operates the community soup kitchen and administers WeCAN—a local crisis assistance program. The agency serves seven rural mountain counties.
The Hospitality House has two shelter facilities on King Street in downtown Boone, but the buildings are worn out from years of use and no longer meet space needs for the number of clients the agency serves. As a result, the Hospitality House launched the Giving Hope a Hand Combined Campaign to raise $7.2 million—enough money to build a $4.7 million shelter facility and fund the organization’s operating needs for three years.
The Combined Campaign has several pieces. The largest part of the pie is a $3 million fundraising goal for private donations. Prior to Tuesday—when the local Celebrity Serve fundraising event benefiting the Hospitality House took place—donor gifts to the campaign totaled $2,330,000, or nearly 78 percent of the fundraising goal, said Lynne Mason, executive director of the Hospitality House.
The second largest piece of the $7.2 million puzzle is funding from grants and zero-interest loans—a $2 million goal. In addition to the CDBG grant, Hospitality House has received a $550,000 grant from the Federal Home Loan Bank of Atlanta and a $500,000 zero-interest, 30-year deferred loan from the North Carolina Finance Agency. Together, grant and loan funding to the Combined Campaign total $1.65 million. Mason said the Hospitality House has submitted a request for additional funding through the N.C. Housing Finance Agency.
Other funding for the Combined Campaign will come from the sale of the downtown properties, the United Way, rents and other revenues.
The Hospitality House board voted at the last meeting to begin construction once the agency received official notification of receipt of the CDBG, Mason said. Hospitality House and the county are currently working to meet procedural requirements before the funds can be released, and then the agency will enter into contract and begin construction, she said.
Mason said she hopes construction can begin within a month.
The agency had originally set January 1, 2010, as the date to move into the new facility. If construction can begin soon, that deadline is still a remote possibility, Mason said.
“One thing I’ve had to learn is patience,” she said.
The money that still needs to be raised through the grant and donor fundraising goals essentially accounts for the third year of operating costs, Mason said.
“We’re confident that over the next several months that we will reach the campaign goal,” she added.
Jill Landers, director of development for Hospitality House, said the agency hopes to wrap up the Combined Campaign by the end of August. Once the campaign is over, the agency will move into annual funding. Landers said the agency hopes to retain donors who will give on a regular basis.
“We’ve become much more intentional with fundraising,” Landers said.
You can send your donation to the Combined Campaign to Hospitality House, PO Box 309, Boone, NC 28607. Note in the memo line that your donation is for the Giving Hope a Hand campaign.
For more information about donating to the campaign or naming opportunities, contact Landers at 828-262-3461. For more info about the Hospitality House, click to www.HospitalityHouseOfBoone.org.
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