Mercy House

Mercy House Executive Director Larry Haynes

Earlier this week, Larry Haynes met with The Laguna Beach Independent reporter Rita Robinson to share some insights on homelessness in general, and what is possible if everyone works together.

Laguna Beach’s two local non profits, the Friendship Center and the Laguna Relief and Resource Center, will be the primary operators of a planned overnight shelter for the homeless, with Mercy House acting as a consultant to assist in getting the program underway.

A nonstop mother lode of refreshingly candid information, Haynes was the original employee of Mercy House, which started with a single rented home in 1990 that provided transitional shelter for 10 men. Mercy House corporation now offers a range of shelters and services for a wide-range of homeless people in Orange, San Bernardino and Los Angeles counties. As executive director, Haynes, 45, has established 10 transitional houses serving single men, women, families and HIV AIDS patients. All have the same goal: get people off the streets and back on their feet.

Read the story in The Laguna Beach Independent titled Expert on Transitional Housing Joins the Team.

The holidays are a busy time of year for everyone.  If you want to help the homeless, but just don’t have the time to shop for gifts, please visit the Mercy House Target Wish List to purchase a gift card that will be distributed to the homeless men, women, and children staying in emergency shelters, or to those who visit our Emergency Walk-in Centers.  Gift cards are available in $10, $25 and $50 denominations.  The larger denominations will be used to purchase items for hygiene kits and breakfast bags.

Mercy House Executive Director Larry Haynes spoke with The New York Times’ Peter Goodman about people who have experienced foreclosure, and are now finding themselves homeless and seeking shelter for the first  time.

“These families never needed help before,”  said Larry Haynes, executive director of Mercy House in Santa Ana, Calif. “They haven’t a clue about where to go and they have all sorts of humiliation issues. They don’t even know what to say, what to ask for.”

To read the whole story in today’s New York Times, go to “Foreclosures Force Ex-Homeowners to Turn to Shelters.”

LIVING WITH HEART
Happy Hour benefiting Mercy House
First Monday of Every Month
Proof Bar, 5 to 8 p.m.
215 North Broadway, Santa Ana

Featuring a signature “Heartini” cocktail created specially to benefit Mercy House
• opportunity drawing • light appetizers • networking •
$10 donation suggested

Proof Bar generously will donate 25 percent of event sales to Mercy House.
Proof Bar offers eclectic music and a fully stocked bar, all in a semi-intimate setting. The lounge area has a cosmopolitan feel with a dramatic 25 foot lifted ceiling, smooth natural and atmosphere lighting and indoor vines twisting upward from rock bed. www.proofbar.com

Mercy House is a non profit 501(c)3 organization providing homeless prevention, emergency services, transitional housing and permanent housing with supportive services to families and individuals.

R.S.V.P. to 714-862-1112 or jamie.miller@wundermarx.com

Click here to download the invite PDF

Macy’s Passport In-Store – Usually held the first weekend in October (date to come) Attached is the flyer from this year that explains the event and how it benefits Mercy House and other non-profits dedicated to helping those with HIV/AIDS.