Issue date: June 03, 1998
Shelter Network will launch its campaign next week to raise $9.9 million to expand and improve care for homeless families and individuals in San Mateo County, including a plan to build a new family shelter in Menlo Park to replace the existing one.
The campaign kick-off will take place from 4 to 6 p.m. Wednesday, June 10, at Haven Family House, 260 Van Buren St. in Menlo Park, one of three prime beneficiaries of the new funds.
Campaign funds will go toward purchasing land and building a new facility for Haven Family House, where Shelter Network has been helping homeless families since 1991 in the run-down former Belle Haven Motel.
The former motel will be demolished, and a larger building constructed on the site to provide 23 one- and two-bedroom apartments, a licensed child-care center, an after-school tutoring room and computer training center, laundry facilities, group meeting rooms, and case management offices.
The other projects to be funded are:
**The Maple Street Shelter in Redwood City, which will be county's only 24-hour-a-day, year-round emergency shelter and transitional housing program for homeless men and women. Provided by San Mateo County, the facility will contain 75 beds and serve more than 400 homeless individuals annually.
**First Step for Families in San Mateo will be the county's first emergency shelter for homeless parents and children. It will house 12 to 14 families at a time and will serve more than 100 families each year.
"Completion of these projects will enable Shelter Network to nearly double our capacity, from serving 65 families and 34 individuals at a time, to serving 87 families and 75 individuals," said Cassandra Benjamin, executive director of Shelter Network, a 10-year-old agency that is the principal provider of transitional housing in the county. "This will result in over 1,500 homeless men, women and children receiving services each year," she said.
Shelter Network now provides about 50,000 nights of shelter each year and serves more than 800 homeless adults and children in five facilities from East Palo Alto to Daly City.
"San Mateo County is the only county in the Bay Area without a year-round shelter for its homeless men, women and children," said Ms. Benjamin. "Yet each year over 5,000 county residents become homeless, the majority of whom are low-income families."
The capital campaign has already raised $4.5 million from government, foundation, business and individual sources, she said.
On hand at the June 10 event to speak for the "Building Brighter Futures" capital campaign will be San Mateo County Supervisor Rich Gordon; housing developer Mike Podell; and Sterling Speirn, executive director of the Peninsula Community Foundation.
"Shelter Network provides both a nurturing place to stay and the critical tools people need to make real and lasting changes in their lives," said Mr. Speirn. "We urge our community to participate generously in the campaign."
For information, call Cassandra Benjamin at 340-8814.
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