With two milestones in sight, charity plans for growth but faces hurdles.
By Ralph Montaño - Bee Staff Writer
Published 12:00 am PDT Thursday, April 19, 2007
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Sometime today, a volunteer at Loaves & Fishes will serve what officials estimate to be the 5 millionth free meal in the charity's 24-year history.
But rather than using the occasion to look at the homeless service's past, Executive Director Sister Libby Fernandez said it is time to look toward the future. The complex in the Richards Boulevard neighborhood will celebrate its 25th anniversary next year and Fernandez wants to celebrate by raising money for rebuilding.
"We're going to be 25 years old, and we're falling apart," Fernandez said last week during a community briefing on social services in the area. "We want to refurbish, and we want to beautify our neighborhood."
Fernandez has put together a wish list called the Loaves & Fishes 25th Anniversary Fund. The list includes renovating existing buildings, such as Mustard Seed, a school for homeless children, as well as building a new warehouse and housing.
Joan Burke, director of advocacy at Loaves & Fishes, said reaching these goals also helps the city reach its goal of ending homelessness in 10 years. Loaves & Fishes is a private charity, and neither solicits nor accepts government money.
Burke said one of the charity's goals is to consolidate its buildings into a one-block triangle, bordered by North 12th Street, North C Street and Ahern Street, just north of downtown Sacramento.
Currently, the charity operates Friendship Park and a leased warehouse on the south side of North C Street.
"We would like to build our own warehouse," Fernandez said.
Loaves & Fishes submitted plans for the reconfiguration to the city in October 2005. Evan Compton, an associate planner with the city, said last week that issues are still being ironed out. Part of the difficulty, he said, is the charity's location along North 12th Street, which is the major corridor across the American River.
The city's Richards Boulevard Area Plan has a 180-foot right-of-way on North 12th where Loaves & Fishes wants to relocate its library. Loaves & Fishes is considering submitting plan modifications to avoid the conflict. The city may also consider eventually changing the zoning in light of all the proposed growth in the area.
In any case, Compton said, approval of the charity's plans would require approval from a zoning administrator. There is no hearing now planned, but neighbors will be notified if one is scheduled.
If recent meetings are any indication, the charity could face some stiff resistance from neighbors when the proposal goes before the public.
The city has held two meetings so far on its plan to end chronic homelessness in Sacramento. Both have been attended by residents in the downtown area who have issues with part of the plan.
The centerpiece of the city and county joint plan calls for making housing the top priority. The rationale holds that once people have a roof over their heads, they can better concentrate on their mental and physical health or getting employment.
The city and county plan calls for 500 units of housing over the next 10 years.
Residents of neighborhoods near Richards Boulevard are concerned with what they see as a concentration of social services in the area and the effect on surrounding neighborhoods.
Also in the area is the Salvation Army at 1200 North B St.; Union Gospel Mission, 400 Bannon St.; Volunteers of America's Aid-in-Kind Program at 4700 Bannon St.; Quinn Cottages, a 60-unit housing complex at 1500 A St.; and Francis House, a charity for homeless in neighboring Mansion Flats at 1422 C St.
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GOALS
These are the goals that Loaves & Fishes hopes to meet with its 25th Anniversary Fund, along with dollar amounts desired followed by the charity's estimate of how much will be saved annually if the goal is met.
1) Pay off the mortgage on the dining room: $400,000. Savings: $40,000 annually.
2) Build a dining room warehouse instead of leasing the current facility: $435,000. Savings: $65,000 annually.
3) Refurbish Mustard Seed school for homeless children: $300,000.
4) New toilet facility: $225,000.
5) Renovation to Maryhouse: $150,000.
6) Underwrite emergency overnight shelter for homeless women: $90,000 per year.
7) 60 units of cottage housing for disabled homeless: $600,000.
8) Convert Loaves & Fishes to solar energy: $300,000. Savings: $25,000 annually.
About the writer:
The Bee's Ralph Montaño can be reached at
(916) 321-1159
or rmontano@sacbee.com.http://www.sacbee.com/220/story/156369.html
Comment: Peta at 6:03 PM PST Monday, April 23, 2007 wrote:
Help Loaves & Fishes
How a given society relates to and treats its homeless people is a key indicator of its basic humaneness or not. I myself have been homeless before mainly due to my chemical addiction to booze and crank. I remember waking up in rags by the river, going to Loaves & Fishes and having it as a place where I could just 'be'.
Now I have several years sane and sober from dope, am employed as a Counselor at the Salvation Army, am Field Coordinator for a Christian Recovery Group called CASA and know that chemical addictions are usually signs of deeper underlying issues and problems that the victims of chemical dependency must address in their lives.
My point is: let us be humane help the homeless, especially homeless children and let the one who has not sinned cast the first stone.
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