Hope House is in the early stage of putting a community together to gather funds that are more sustainable, Cherie Woolsey, director of Hope House said.
“We are waiting for one of United Way’s campaign to be over before starting,” Diane Moore, a volunteer of Hope House said.
Plans to start the community will be around January. The community will head to various groups such as lottery groups and toastmaster groups to talk about funding for Hope House, said Moore who will be one of the speakers.
The primary goal of the community is to raise funds and increase donations for Hope House.
“Everything we got is donated. We do get grant from United Way funding and donations that people give but we need more money to buy hygiene items, diapers and food. Items which people don’t usually donate,” Woolsey said.
“The great thing about this is that people can decide where their money goes,” Moore said. For instance, when someone signs with United Way, they can request for United Way to take out $20 from their pay every month and have it donated to Hope House.
The service center receives $7,490 from United Way of Whatcom County. Hope House will receive a percentage [the fund of $7,490] of the Safety Net Fund until 2014 at which the service center may be able to reapply for funding for the next three-years-cycle, Tamara Tregoning, communications manager of United Way of Whatcom County said in an email.
Hope House opened in Oct. 2000. The white one-storey multi-service center is a joint effort between Assumption Catholic Church and Catholic Community Services. Located next to Assumption Catholic Church on Kentucky Street in Sunnyland, the service center is for the low-income and homeless to ‘shop’ for free with the items donated by residents.
“We see ourselves as a basic need provider,” Woolsey said. “Providing needs like clothing, food, hygiene items and baby items all free-of-charge.”
Hope House used to serve an average of 10,000 people a year but the number has increased to 20,000 in the past three to four years due to economy, Woolsey said. Twenty percent of the people who use the service of Hope House are homeless and 80 percent are either low-income or part of the working poor or senior citizens.
“People are getting laid-off that’s why we get more people,” Woolsey said. The clients in Hope House come from as far as Lynden too. With the increase in clients, Hope House faces a challenge with the lack of funds.
With the raised funds by the community, Hope House wants to give a big push of the money towards getting priority items like food for its clients as well as items that are rarely donated.
Bigger items like sleeping bags, backpacks, pots and pans and toilet rolls are items that seem so trivial yet are a necessity which we do not notice, Moore said.
Expensive items such as baby formula and diapers are one of the priorities too which Hope Hose wants to buy with the money as these are items which are rarely received.
“They can spend $15 on getting more items instead of just $15 on a baby formula,” Moore explained about the reason why the items are rarely donated by people.
Clients do come to Hope House too when they need financial assistance help. For instance, when clients need money to pay for water or electric bills but are faced with financial challenges, they will go down to Hope House and request for direct financial assistance which comes from a special funding.
“People do come in and request for bus tickets home too,” Moore said.
A lady had thought living with her mother was not a great idea so she ran away with her boyfriend. But when situation became tough, she realized her mistake and came to Hope House to request a ticket to get her back home, Moore said. St. Paul Church, Assumption Catholic Church, Hilcrest Chapel and Sacred Heart Catholic Church came together to gather donations to help the lady get a ticket back home.
Though Hope House tries to help all its client, its primary focus is still providing the basic needs to its clients.
“When we run out of items for our clients we have to ask them to come back another time and hope it is available,” Moore said.
Requests are also placed on the church’s bulletin board or made during church service’s announcement whenever items run out.
“We’re thankful and appreciate the effort of the volunteers and donators,” Moore said.
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