The Sunnyvale Sun

News

Shelters close for season, but talks still continuing

By JASON GOLDMAN-HALL

The repeated opening and closing of the Sunnyvale Cold Weather Shelter during the rainy season did more than just provide sporadic shelter to the homeless people in the area.

It got the community talking about homeless issues, and highlighted Sunnyvale's need for a year-round place that homeless people can go to get a warm meal and a good night's sleep.

Shelter site manager Kelcy Fleming works for EHC Lifebuilders, the organization that leases the Sunnyvale National Guard Armory each year for the shelter. Fleming said that the support is there for a permanent shelter.

"I think everyone would like to see a year-round shelter build in Sunnyvale, but right now, it's just talk," Fleming said. "We're going to need the support of the community to do it."

Lifebuilders' two cold-weather shelters--in Sunnyvale and Gilroy--closed for the season on May 3 after a hectic series of closures and re-openings as weather changed and funding came and went.

Thanks to community support and pressure, Gilroy is no longer home to a seasonal shelter. Instead, a permanent shelter to serve the community is in place, and Lifebuilders employees and volunteers want the same to happen here.

Fleming said Sunnyvale volunteers and residents contacted their local council members, and some even called the governor.

More importantly, Fleming said, the Sunnyvale community turned out in force to provide blankets, food and transportation for the people who use the shelter.

"The community always supports us, but this was all done at a moment's notice and they really chipped in," Fleming said.

Sarah Wasserman, a 6-year volunteer from Sunnyvale's Unitarian Universalist Fellowship Church, is one of those volunteers, and was recently asked to represent the faith community on Lifebuilders' Singles division advisory board. She hopes her involvement on the board can help her organize the many volunteers into a single unit to better provide for the needs of Sunnyvale's homeless, whether in next year's temporary shelter or a future permanent shelter.

"If Gilroy can do it, I don't see why we shouldn't be able to," she said.