The Hospitality House always had that inviting name, even when it was dark, dank, and packed with people sleeping on the floor. It had two meager, moldy bathrooms for as many as 24 residents
At an open house Sunday, the results of a $500,000 renovation of the 237 N. McPherson St., emergency shelter were on display for about 100 people.
The result? A house nearly as hospitable as its name.
The distinctive blue turn of the century farmhouse grew 30 percent larger, adding a new kitchen, foundation, laundry room, two new bathrooms and a big redwood back deck.
The Hospitality House is the big net that catches those who fall through the cracks in social services.
Last summer and fall was bad times for Vince Southers. He lost pretty much everything he had and ended up homeless.
“I lost my house and my car and darn near lost my daughter,” Southers told the crowd. “I … didn”t have a place to live and thanked God the Hospitality House was here.”
Southers was one of the successful former residents who spoke at Sunday”s Open House for the finally remodeled Hospitality House. Board President Bill Gibson described a 60 percent success ratio.
“These people go right on to being productive citizens, renting and paying taxes like everybody else.”
One man told of rebuilding his life after a stint in jail, another of escaping a lifetime drug addiction through the Hospitality House and Narcotics Anonymous. Tears came for two women when they mentioned the caring that had been shown them.
In a town with half million dollar ordinary houses and $9 per hour ordinary jobs, the working poor often end up eating or staying at the house. Gibson showed off fine tilework done above the communal stove by a tradesman who has a wife and three children and had to live in the house because he couldn”t find housing.
“We start seeing the working poor toward the end of each month,” Gibson said.
While just one current resident was on hand Sunday, former residents laughed and bantered with Project Manager Gloria Renteria, who runs Hospitality House and got a new office from the renovation.
While the house seems to have a fun spirit and now smells fresh and looks inviting, it isn”t the kind of place one would stay if there was any other choice.
Despite two dozen beds packed into four rooms, the new architecture, high ceilings and skylights somehow make the place seem spacious. This reporter couldn”t fit between bunk twin beds in the women”s bedroom. The bathrooms now have separate stalls and walk-in showers. In the past, one person would go in the bathroom and lock the door.
Southers remembers the Hospitality House of two years ago as darker in atmosphere as well as architecture.
“This place was spooky, they have done some miraculous things here. It was dirty, people living here were selling drugs out of here. My hat is off to all of you who turned this place around. I wouldn”t have brought my daughter here. I thank God change was under way and it was here for us.”
Much of the change is credited to strong involvement from the board of directors and especially a firm and fair hand by boss Gloria Renteria who took over at the start of last year.
The project went $100,000 over budget, as costs escalated over the three years of planning and work. Gibson said Hurricane Katrina caused construction materials to escalate in cost. To bridge the CDBG grant shortfall, the city and county came to the rescue, Gibson said.
Mendocino County Supervisor Kendall Smith met with the board and the city of Fort Bragg and helped work out a solution in which the county would pay a $55,000 shortfall, which the city would contribute to. Both agencies have elaborate links to the house, from Mental Health and Social Services referrals to the House being a help to law officers from the city and county intent on helping, not jailing unsheltered people.
A stay in the Hospitality House can start in a variety of ways.
“All sorts of people come here or are brought here. If the police encounter someone out at night and they say they are homeless, they bring them here,” said Gibson.
Renteria explained the strictest policy is no drugs, alcohol or marijuana allowed.
“If you bring your wife here and your kids, you know they are going to be safe,” said Renteria.
“Just normally we have our problems, with 24 people here. (Some who are recovering addicts and others struggling with personal crisis”s and mental health issues). “Now just imagine if we added drugs on top of that, with kids in here.”
“If we suspect they are on drugs or alcohol we test them,” Gibson said. “Then they get three days to make up their mind, if they want to change their lifestyle they can stay here up to 30 days.”
There is a 9:30 p.m. curfew after which residents must be upstairs in the crowded bunks. Men and women sleep in separate rooms, even couples. Everybody has assigned chores which are done before 9 a.m.
Free meals are cooked by one resident, normally to avoid confusion in the kitchen.
Churches, non-profits, civic groups, businesses and particularly government agencies work together to make Hospitality House function at a cost of just $12 per day per resident, Gibson said.
“If it weren”t for the Food Bank here in Fort Bragg we probably wouldn”t be able to do this. We serve 14,000 to 15,000 meals a year here,” said Gibson. “Meals cost less than $1 per day per person and that includes their coffee,” Gibson said. The $1 per day includes feeding more than just the people living in the house, which has an official capacity of 24. “Sixty-five percent of the evening meal is from outsiders, they come here to eat and we feed them,” Gibson said.
Thanksgiving Coffee as well as Starbucks donate coffee, a priceless commodity especially for recovering addicts.
Leventhal and Schlosser Architects of Fort Bragg donated their services. In addition to an open feeling in a packed space, there are nice little touches of light, such as a window in a stall in the men”s bathroom.
“We work for a lot of really rich people and do really expensive projects for them. It is a good thing to work for people who don”t have much,” said Robert Schlosser. He said the bathrooms were so poor in design and condition they were abandoned during the remodel and entirely rebuilt.
Although the remodel was extensive, the bones were good, the house built of old growth redwood.
“I don”t know what we could have done that was less,” Schlosser said, when asked about the overage. Those involved in the renovation blamed partly their own misunderstanding of the grant payment process for being over budget.
The project got a contribution from the contractor, Bill Mertle and Fort Bragg Electric.
Renteria said the Surf Motel donated bedspreads in king size, which were cut in half to fit the twin sized beds.
The Rotary Club in Mendocino, provided beds, mattresses and a seven-foot tall brand new stainless steel commercial refrigerator. The Mendocino Knights of Columbus chipped in an equally impressive stainless steel refrigerator.
Grand Knight Enrique Quinonez was impressed with the look of the place on Saturday.
“This is a very important service to the entire Coast community,” Quinonez said.
The Mendocino Community Foundation, Fort Bragg Lions Club, the City Club from Mendocino and Kemgas were praised for helping Hospitality House. The project”s landscaping was finished on Saturday, the day before the open house. Another rush came to finish the new kitchen just in time for a packed Thanksgiving Dinner.
The Mendocino Coast Hospitality Center was started by an ecumenical group and was incorporated in 1986 as a California Nonprofit Corporation. County records show the now century old house was purchased for about $80,000. Opened in 1987, Hospitality House provides the only overnight emergency shelter on the Mendocino Coast to homeless individuals and families.
Plans to demolish and rebuild the guest alley house which abuts on Purity Market had to be scuttled as costs escalated.
Gibson said a misunderstanding of the grant process had partly caused the project to run out of money. Although the organization has another $316,000 grant, this time they won”t use it until they know how much they can spend in the end.
Mitch King went from homeless to a house manager.
“My last address was Glass Beach. Everything has turned around, I am back on my feet. I have my self esteem back. It is all thanks to the Hospitality House,” said King.
