There is a hopping new dinner place in Fort Bragg where a full meal, shared with lots of friends, costs about $1.60 per night.
“This is a place where you can eat very well for very little and where everybody can hold their head up. It”s the anti-soup kitchen, kitchen,” said Rex Gressett, one of the regular diners at the Supper Club, part of the Street Friends ministry at Lighthouse Foursquare Gospel Church on North McPherson Street in Fort Bragg.
Participants in the Supper Club pay $50 per month to pool their purchases and cook and eat meals together. The kitchen is open seven evenings a week. Lighthouse has always been a key link in the chain of services for the hungry and homeless, but has now expanded its two-days-per-week lunch to also include the daily do-it-yourself-dinner. Lunch is now three days a week, with Saturday added after the Fort Bragg Food Bank stopped doing its Saturday bag lunch services.
The Supper Club started seven months ago and is run by Glendie Johnson; it now includes 40 people.
Other key local services for the homeless and mentally ill are also expanding.
Mendocino County has announced that effective May 1, the Red House at 250 South Franklin St., will be available for use four days per week. Closed to drop-in services last year, the Red House used to be a key place for the homeless to take showers and gain respite during the day. Thirdly, the Hospitality House, the community”s nonprofit shelter for the homeless, is expanding its facilities and services.
Allowing people to pay for and cook their meals, uplifts the homeless in a way that other services do not, Gressett said.
“Many people think the homeless don”t deserve to be fed as well as other people. Our opinion on the other hand, is give a guy a chance to pay for his meal, he is much more likely to go out in society feeling good about himself and about society,” said Gressett.
The program has fewer rules than many other programs, but does require a heads-up from members by 5 p.m. on the nights they plan to dine. The Food Bank is also key to keeping the Supper Club going.
“People pay $50 and never have to apologize for eating a meal again,” Gressett said. Once someone has joined the club they can stop by for relaxation, even naps, all of which was going on this Monday about 1 p.m.
“We love and care about each other here. I feel the guys here are really looking out for me,” said club member Dawna McLaren.
Gressett said he is not homeless, nor are several other regular eaters; they come for the good company and food.
“This is a great way for anyone to eat, to share with a community of people. Everybody ought to try it. You ought to try it,” said Gressett, a well-known political gadfly on harbor and ocean issues.
Whether the Red House will also offer drop-in services as it once did is still being decided by the county. The Red House is not a homeless service per se, but the homeless mentally ill once comprised most of the clients. The Red House will be open from 10:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m., Tuesday through Friday to start, said Jenine Miller, head of adult services for Mendocino County mental health.
“We hope to be able to open on Saturdays, once the house is up and running. The Red House will operate on a club house model, which will include groups, activities, and helping clients with life skills. All participants will need to have a mental illness, but will not require a referral from mental health. All attendees will be required to participate. There will be one primary person there daily, with other staff facilitating some groups and activities,” said Miller.
Activists and the Mendocino County Mental Health Board had pressured county staff to return the Red House to wider use, especially for drop in services. Currently, the county is paying about $850 per month rent on the structure to use it two to three times a week for meetings and probably storage.
Colette Vanderhayden, who is both a mental health client and activist for better mental health services, said she lobbied hard for restoring needed mental health services to the Red House. She says she called county Mental Health Director Tom Pinizzotto”s office numerous times, saying she became increasingly forceful.
“His secretary kept being nice to me no matter what. I told them how I had lobbied for the Prop 64 (Mental Health Service Act MHSA), spent my own money doing it, and that those monies had better be used to reopen the Red House,” she said.
Vanderhayden was told Barbara Durigan, probably the Coast”s best known social worker, would be in charge at the reopened Red House.
“Barbara Durigan would be the perfect person to do this,” said Vanderhayden.
Durigan could not be reached for comment but several others had heard she was being offered the key position at the Red House. Beloved by many and controversial to others, Durigan for many years provided late night emergency mental health services through the Ford Street Project. Today, hospital workers say they often have to wait a very long time for workers to come over the hill to react to a mental health emergency.
It”s not clear yet how people will be admitted or if drop-in will be allowed again at the Red House, as it was in the past. Pinizzotto confirmed that MHSA funds are being used for the project.
“In general, the club house model will be implemented; there will be co-occurring groups, arts and crafts, life skills, benefits enrollment, care management and linkage,” said Pinizzotto
Vanderhayden said it”s crucial for people with brain injuries and mental illness to be able to drop in for something as simple as a haircut or bath from an often critical society. She said given more chances for respite and services, the mentally ill would gladly return the favors by volunteering more, including cleaning up places like Noyo Harbor.
Pinizzotto said the county has been helped by an interested community.
“There is much community interest and support for the Red House. programs like the Red House do not exist in a vacuum. Community support and involvement ensures success and truly breathes life into services,” said Pinizzotto .
“Our partnership with Anna Shaw and Hospitality House (HH) will be enhanced with the expansion of the Red House services,” said Pinizzotto.
The county recently awarded a small SAMSHA grant to Mendocino Coast Hospitality Center that runs Hospitality House, which is also in the midst of construction to expand its beds. The House is often full. The newly funded grant program is called “PATH” Projects for Assistance to Transition from Homelessness.”
“This exciting grant will fund 20 hours per week of a PATH coordinator position to provide outreach and engagement services to the homeless who have mental health issues. Outreach will be delivered to clients at feeding programs along the Mendocino Coast and by responding to calls about homeless people who have mental health issues,” said Anna Shaw, executive director of the Hospitality Center.
“The PATH Coordinator will motivate and engage clients by providing intensive case management. The aim of the case management will be to help clients make and keep clinical appointments, help them improve their housing status, income and practical circumstances. The grant will work in a highly collaborative manner with other agencies, including for example, in synergy with the Red House,” said Shaw.
The City of Fort Bragg and Hospitality Center are also seeking another large grant for a city-based Homeless Intervention Program that would create advocates whose job description would include connecting the homeless to those people and agencies who can best help.
The PATH coordinator will be based at Hospitality Center, 468 S. Franklin St. (rear alley entrance), Fort Bragg and can be reached at 961-0172.
Nearly everyone is cheery about the prospect that future programs can provide help with dignity.
“The [Supper Club] was enough to get the most cynical guy in Fort Bragg saved,” said Gressett.
