Mercy House

Barbara Giasone of the Orange County Register visited the National Guard Armory in Fullerton, Calif., one of two locations housing the Orange County Cold Weather Emergency Shelter Program operated by Mercy House.

She met with Monday night’s regular volunteers comprised of nearly 20 people from St. Juliana’s Catholic Church and Knights of Columbus in Fullerton. Volunteers lay out and sanitize 125 plastic mats on the Armory floor for sleeping, serve meals and snacks, and bring in and distribute warm clothing for those seeking shelter for the night.

Read the story “Families seeking shelter find a holiday gift” in The Orange County Register.

Yesterday, Mercy House received a grant of $50,000 from Orange County United Way to pay for families with children over the age of six- years-old to be redirected immediately from the National Guard armory emergency shelters to motels.

Continue reading ‘Mercy House secures funding from OC United Way to keep ALL families with kids out of the armory shelters’

Read today’s lead story in The Orange County Register by Kimberly Edds titled “Shelters in Squeeze.”

The piece features insightful commentary and statistics from Mercy House Executive Director Larry Haynes, and from other community partners who are leading the charge to battle this growing problem.

Samantha Alvarez, 9, and her brother Timothy, 5, wait inside the Santa Ana armory as their parents fill out forms on Dec. 1, when the county of Orange opened its cold weather shelter program for the first night this season. The program, operated by the Santa Ana nonprofit Mercy House, is offered at two sites: the California Army National Guard armories in Santa Ana and Fullerton. YVETTE CABRERA, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

On Dec. 1, Orange County, Calif. opened the Cold Weather Emergency Shelter Program at the National Guard Armories for the 2009-2010 season. The Alvarez family is one of six placed in motels as part of the Family Redirection Program run by the shelter’s operator, Mercy House on that night.

Orange County Register columnist Yvette Cabrera wanted to know where homeless people and  their families went for the night. Read her story in story in Tuesday’s paper titled “Here’s where homeless are sleeping.”