SEPTEMBER 3, 2009 ISSUE
New Hospitality House Facility Groundbreaking September 18
A groundbreaking ceremony will be held at 1:00 p.m. on Friday, September 18, at the future location of the Hospitality House—off Bamboo Road on Brook Hollow Road in Boone—and the public is invited to attend.
The Hospitality House of the Boone Area, Inc., is a private, nonprofit crisis intervention agency that assists adults and families in homeless situations. It has provided shelter and services to the homeless for 24 years, but its 35 beds have fallen short of meeting the local need for years.
Hospitality House was at its maximum occupancy every night in July, with each of the 35 beds full, and it also had a waiting list of 41 people.
“In June, we had over 50 people on the waiting list,” said Jill Kuykendall Landers, director of development. “We serve seven counties. We’re the only homeless shelter in a seven-county area.”
These counties include Ashe, Avery, Allegheny, Mitchell, Wilkes, Watauga and Yancey.
According to www.hospitalityhouseofboone.org, there are 1,069 homeless individuals on a given night in this seven-county region.
“We’re at our capacity and we have been for the past few years,” Landers said. “We’re operating out of a worn-out and old facility.”
The current emergency shelter that also serves as a community soup kitchen is located at 302 West King Street, and was built as a single-family dwelling in the 1930s, Landers said. The new shelter, by contrast, will have a commercial-sized kitchen and dining facility.
It will also “increase our occupancy from 35 to 62 and increase our ability to provide other services,” she said.
These services include onsite counseling, mental health, medical services, educational training and a health treatment room. When clients come to do a health screening, this room will be where staff will identify any issues that may become a problem, such as high blood pressure.
The Hospitality House served 8,370 meals in July, and distributed 50 food boxes that fed 133 additional people, Landers said.
The WeCAN program, a crisis assistance fund operated by Hospitality House, had 52 client contacts in July and provided or arranged more than $4,600 in assistance, she said.
“The purpose of that fund is to prevent homelessness,” Landers said, adding that it helps people with paying rent, or, in the winter, their higher utility bills.
“Right now, we’re seeing a lot of homelessness prevention,” she continued. “People need help paying their rent so they don’t get evicted.”
In January 2008, the Watauga County Commissioners gave Hospitality House a 1.96-acre plot of land that will be the future site of the facility. Later that year, the board of directors embarked on a Combined Campaign to raise funds to build a new facility. The campaign is currently at $2.4 million with pledges and contributions toward the $3 million private donations goal.
“The response to the campaign efforts in such difficult economic times is a true testimony to the many caring people in our community,” said Lynne Mason, executive director, in a press release. “This shelter will be built by the generosity of the community.”
The decision to proceed with construction of a new facility came about after the Hospitality House received a $600,000 Community Development Block Grant (CDBG), administered through the N.C. Department of Commerce Division of Community Assistance.
“This is welcome news as we continue to serve an unprecedented number of individuals and families in three very old and crowded facilities,” Mason said. “A new shelter will provide more space, allowing us to serve nearly twice as many individuals.”
Those who want to donate to the Combined Campaign can send donations to Hospitality House, PO Box 309, Boone, NC 28607. Note in the memo line that the donation is for the Giving Hope a Hand campaign.
For more information about donating, call Landers at 828-262-3461. For more information about the Hospitality House, click to www.hospitalityhouseofboone.org.
Want To Go?
Date: Friday, September 18
Time: 1:00 p.m.
Location: Brook Hollow Road, off Bamboo Road, Boone
Cost: Free
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