Friendship Shelter among recipients of $1-million grant

A Laguna Beach-based nonprofit that helps provide overnight shelter for the homeless is one of 33 organizations statewide to receive a share of a $1-million grant, St. Joseph Health officials announced this week.

The Friendship Shelter, which staffs the 45-bed Alternative Sleeping Location at 20652 Laguna Canyon Road, received $40,000. Officials with the shelter said the money will be applied to its current programs, which include providing meals and temporary housing for 32 men and women at its facility at 1335 S. Coast Hwy.

Nineteen Orange County programs are receiving the grant money, which will also provide basic needs for the homeless in Sonoma, Napa and Humboldt counties, according to a news release.

The news comes after a collection of Orange County organizations, including the Friendship Shelter, announced last week that they had secured housing for 100 formerly homeless people.

“This initiative is aimed at providing for their most immediate needs, the need for food and the need for shelter,” Annette M. Walker, St. Joseph Health’s interim president and chief executive, said in the release. “Hunger and homelessness are huge obstacles to health and well-being. We know, for example, that food insecurity is connected with chronic health problems, poor performance in school and higher levels of anxiety.”

One in three households statewide do not have enough income to meet their basic costs of living, the release said.

“Those struggling families are particularly burdened by high costs for food,” the release said. “Even having two stable, full-time jobs does not guarantee that a family will be able to make ends meet if those jobs pay at or near the minimum wage.”

St. Joseph Health’s care system includes 16 hospitals, including Mission Hospital in South Laguna, along with physician organizations, home health agencies, hospice care, outpatient services and community outreach services.

Grant money is made possible from the 16 hospitals, which each contribute 10% of their yearly net income toward St. Joseph Health’s broader program of “creating healthier communities and serving the common good,” the release said.