by Leisa Parsons, Area Media Specialist
August 1st will signal the reopening of Haven for Hope’s Intake Center. They closed down their intake facility over a year ago due to Covid. During the shutdown, their intake area was being used to quarantine those homeless individuals who actually had Covid and to avoid spreading it to other residents.
Chuck Atanasio, who oversees service opportunities for the San Pedro congregation, had been reaching out to Haven for Hope for several months. With Haven now resuming their normal operations, they contacted Atanasio with word that they needed volunteers. Over a dozen members from three congregations in the Church’s San Antonio North Stake showed up to help clean.
Their intake area needed disinfecting and paint clean up. Haven for Hope has a painter they have contracted to repaint the space, however they needed volunteers to clean up. “They had it all taped off, so we’ve pulled up all of the tape they had,” said volunteer, Mindy Clayton. She continued, “We’ve also been cleaning where they overpainted and the splatters.” By removing the splatters and tape, it helps Haven for Hope’s budget by avoiding more overtime costs.
Bishop Bruce Baillio, busy cleaning one of the bathrooms, mentioned that each of the rooms had about 6 metal cots and mattresses that needed disinfecting. He said, “We disinfected all of the mattresses and all of the frames and loaded them to a truck and took them to their courtyard.”
The volunteers worked for just over five hours, disinfecting and cleaning. They also removed furniture from offices still needing to be painted in anticipation for reopening. With Haven for Hope resuming normal operations, they are also opening back up to many volunteer opportunities.
