LAKEPORT— The only homeless shelter in the city of Lakeport, Elijah House located at 1111 Whalen Way at the old Juvenile Hall facility, will officially cease operations on September 4, according to Scott Abbot, program manager at Lake County Behavioral Health services. With that date rapidly approaching, Elijah House said they were still finding housing for the residents who remained at the shelter, while the facility struggled with a reduced staff as team members have begun to move onto other positions and were attempting to clean out the building in time as per their contractual rental obligations, but sources knowledgeable of the details said otherwise. Local homeless supporters said they were shouldering most of the burden of finding housing for residents, a number of which were displaced prematurely this week.
According to Director of Operations Justin Ammon, the Oroville-based Foundation which helped operate the shelter under contract by the County of Lake since 2020, has been working on housing the remaining residents at the Lakeport shelter, of which there were less than 13 left at press time Friday. “I’m positive we can have everyone housed by the end of the month.”
For the residents that remain, Ammon said Elijah House is reaching out to family members and other agencies finding housing through those pathways if eligible. If not eligible, the foundation is working creatively to find roommate situations so that housing remains affordable. Ammon also shared how they are currently juggling a short staff as employees move on to work elsewhere.
Some of those staff members have been offered jobs with the organization in Oroville, including former Elijah House shelter Director Gary Deas who was hired to oversee the Foundation’s Back 2 Work Program funded by a sweeping $1.1 billion, multiyear clean-up effort led by Caltrans in partnership with the Butte County Office of Education.
Ammon also told the Record-Bee earlier this month that Elijah House would continue to provide case management services at their office located in Lucerne. A source close to the operations and transition of residents who chose to remain anonymous, said that she knew of residents living at the North Shore facility, albeit they were fewer than residents housed in Lakeport. Ammon did cite HIPAA privacy protections as a reason for not answering whether or not the facility was still housing, or ever housed Sober Living Environment program residents.
Ammon added that there are several other organizations working alongside these shelters, extending services further than emergency shelter. The Lake County Continuum of Care is one of those groups, providing linkages between agencies in order to get people the individualized services they need as well as collecting and presenting data relevant to their mission.
The issue of funding shelters and grant funding was discussed at the Aug. 2, 2022 meeting of the Lake County Board of Supervisors where the board discussed a Local Homelessness Action Plan available on the website (lakecoc.org) described as an Action Plan (that) is intended to provide the County of Lake and the Lake County Continuum of Care, respectively, with the data on what homelessness looks like in Lake County. The board also considered grant applications for Homeless Housing Assistance and Prevention round three funds.
Abott said that he believed that there were fewer than a dozen residents still sheltered at the facility in Lakeport but that the Foundation was actively looking for placement for residents. “Their goal was to try to get everyone out by today (Thursday), but they did not meet that goal.” He said the facility was scheduled to close on September 4 and that residents had until the end of the month to find alternative housing. Several sources told the Record-Bee that was not the case, that the only residents who were allowed to stay past this week had been hired to work for the organization’s Back 2 Work program at a minimum wage rate.
Meanwhile, The Lake County Continuum of Care (LCCoC) action plan discussed current goals to reduce the county’s homelessness and strategies to do so, as well as grant funding including round three of HHAP grant funds dated Dec. 2021 in which the County of Lake and Lake County CoC allocations are respectively, $569,940 and $610,650.
The LCCoC and Lake County Bevioral Health Services announced on their website last month that (LCBHS) were pleased to announce the availability of $300,000 through the HHAP rounds two and three program to provide operations of the COVID Emergency Shelter in the North Shore area of Lake County. They added that the parameters of the program are for persons experiencing homelessness including 10% set aside for youth. The deadline for applications was Wednesday of this week.
Foundation president a no show again; advisory council votes to consider censuring organization
Although Elijah House President/CEO Joseph Henderson was invited to speak at Thursday’s Lucerne Area Town Hall meeting and was scheduled to do so according to the meeting’s agenda, he did not show up and it was not the first time the organization failed to update the council and community about the status of the bu ilding according to LATH Chair Kurt McKelvey. McKelvey added that the advisory council was initially informed that the facility would be used as an administrative office and not used as a place for people to live, except under emergency circumstances, but he said that he believes the location has been operating as a Sober Living Environment.
McKelvey shared that he sent a letter on August 4 to Henderson inquiring about topics such as how many beds were in the facility, asking about zoning and about how many 290 PC (residents convicted of sex crimes and certain other offenses), were sheltered at the site, among other relevant issues. He said that he also questioned why Elijah House would continue to maintain an administrative office in Lucerne after announcing they were prepared to exit the county. Following a suggestion by McKelvey, the council voted 3-0 (two council members were absent) to send another letter asking representatives from the foundation to address these issues and update the community by sending a representative to a future meeting, and to also consider censuring Elijah House if they continue to ignore this request. Third District Supervisor Eddie E.J. Crandell said the matter would be put in the agenda for further discussion at an upcoming BOS meeting.
Faces of the prematurely evicted
According to 72-year-old Perry Schaublin, a resident at the shelter for the past five months, he along with his two other elderly friends, both in their 70s, after being told that they would be able to stay at the shelter until September 1, Elijah House representatives came to them and told them they had to be out by Aug. 18, shortly after the first announcement.
“They didn’t give us any reason, they just said we had to be out,” said Schaublin who added, “I’ve done all I can to find a place, even though they told us multiple times, you will not be homeless.” Schaublin added they were given no hotel vouchers or other resources and have had to pay out of pocket for hotel stays in the North Shore the past few nights at a rate of $150 a night. “What is happening is we have become pawns in their political battles.” He went on to say he was visited by Elijah House representatives Friday, but were not given any financial assistance or resources. “They kept telling us, ‘wait until tomorrow.’ for the past two weeks now.”
Yvonne Cox is the owner of The Snake Lady’s Motorcycle Thrift Store and founder of the “Dignity Diner” project. Cox is known in the community for upholding a 23-year tradition of donating food in honor of her mother — a waitress of 25 years who also made an effort to provide meals. “A lot of time we get passed over for grants,” she said during the meeting. “They go to other corporations to make money off people’s misery.”
Cox said she received an email informing her that Elijah House was folding and at least six people would be out on the streets Thursday with no housing vouchers or any other resources. So she said she grabbed a volunteer and picked them all up. “Where are these V.I.Ps?” she asked in reference to Elijah House executives. “These are clean, sober good people, the last thing they need is being put out on the street.”
