Donate to help the people who rely on the Building Bridges Homeless Shelter for a safe place to sleep every night
The Building Bridges Homeless Shelter provides people experiencing a housing crisis with a safe place to rest, reconnect, heal, and transform their lives. Guests of the Shelter can access private showers, washers and dryers for cleaning their clothes, extensive supportive services, a place to receive their mail, and other vital resources. The Building Bridges (B2) Shelter has 46 beds and serves an average of 100 unduplicated individuals every month. Help our shelter guests keep this resource for the summer!
For the last 6 years the B2 Shelter has only been open during the winter months. Keeping the shelter open year-round has been a goal we’ve been working towards and are just short of achieving. This spring the need for that became even more apparent with the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. The B2 Shelter has implemented additional protocols to mitigate the spread of the virus. These include providing guests with regular access to showers, laundry, beds that are spaced for social distancing and curtained off when possible, face masks, weekly on-site clinics with a doctor to regularly address medical issues, and an on-site full-time nurse to monitor for signs of the virus.
In previous years the B2 Shelter would have closed on May 1st. This year the County of Mendocino and the B2 operating agency, Redwood Community Services, were able to secure funding to keep the Shelter open for May, June, and July 2020. We are so grateful for each additional night of shelter our folks have been able to access due to that financial support.
And now we need your help with keeping the shelter open for August, September, and October 2020! It costs roughly $50,000 per month to operate the B2 Shelter, so we’re aiming to raise $150,000. That sounds like a lot, right? But when you break it down to a cost per bed per night, it becomes way less overwhelming. It costs $37 for ONE person for ONE night at the B2 Shelter.
· Donate $37 to sponsor ONE person getting shelter for ONE night!
· Donate $125 to cover the costs of 30 showers and 15 loads of laundry (a days worth of B2 Shelter showers and laundry)
· Donate $259 to sponsor ONE person accessing shelter, shower, laundry, computers, clothing closet, and staff support for ONE whole week
We are reaching out far and wide for support with this fundraiser, seeking donations from individuals and organizations alike and exploring any/all sources of funding. The Shelter is a vital part of addressing homelessness in Mendocino County and we want to keep it going!
Solid gratitude to everyone who donates, shares, asks a friend to share, and supports this effort. Thank you!! <3
Building Bridges – what is it?
B2 is a Ukiah-based collaborative homeless resource center designed to provide outreach, safe shelter, and housing related services to people experiencing a housing crisis in Mendocino County. B2 operates from a low barrier perspective – meaning that as few barriers to services and shelter are put in place as possible. The primary goal of B2 is to provide a safe place for people to access supports that will aid them with acquiring and sustaining housing.
