A financially troubled nonprofit that operates homeless shelters
in Gilroy and San Martin received additional county funding to
shore up a deficit and allow it to run a program to shelter
homeless during the winter.
MORGAN HILL
A financially troubled nonprofit that operates homeless shelters in Gilroy and San Martin received additional county funding to shore up a deficit and allow it to run a program to shelter homeless during the winter.
The program, which has been in place for over a decade, provides shelter, food and other services to 500 homeless adults and families per day, and during the year’s coldest and wettest months, nearly 4,000 people seek its services.
At its regular meeting Tuesday in San Jose, the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors voted 4-0 to approve EHC LifeBuilders’ request for an additional $75,142 needed to operate the National Guard Armory shelter in Gilroy and the John H. Boccardo Family Living Center in San Martin. The county is in the final year of a three-year agreement with EHC and funded it $323,564 so far this year.
Faced with chronic underfunding that resulted in a $6.5-million deficit, EHC was forced to nearly half its $13-million operating budget and let go 44 percent of its employees. EHC’s chief executive Jennifer Loving said the organization’s annual budget would be roughly $7 million following a transition plan currently being implemented.
The nonprofit is funded by federal grants, private foundations and individuals, but it depends on county money to operate some of its programs, such as the Cold Weather Shelter Program.
“The support enables us to continue the necessary work to shelter folks that would otherwise be out in the cold,” Loving said. “I think we could all agree that it would be a tragedy.”
On Wednesday, EHC held a memorial in San Jose for 71 homeless people who died throughout the county this year, Loving said The ceremony featured a gravestone inscribed with the names of the deceased and eulogies from a San Jose city councilman and a pastor.
