WooCanCook
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WooCanCook |
#9 12/18/1999
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 | For More information about the Tri-City Homeless Coalition
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| Click here for Recipe for Stir-Fried Beef in Oyster Sauce with Broccoli |
After starting the two rice cookers, Theresa was chopping up all the
broccoli.
Cooking at the Tri-City Homeless Coalition is extremely satisfying and enjoyable because not only do you get to help people, but you also get to cook in a fully equipped kitchen. I really like cooking using the 8-burner gas range and also preparing on acres and acres of stainless steel counter!
What's the best part of cooking at TCHC? We don't even have to clean up our mess--as one of the residents is responsible for the kitchen cleaning duty! Look at all the pots and pans that I left behind! Sorry!
Please contact Stephen (swoo@home.com) if you want to cook and serve in the future with Theresa and me.
Here is a photo collage of our cooking extravaganza on 12/18/1999. Lawrence, Joy, and their daughter Chelsea prepared fresh fruit salad. Lawrence works at Intel, and they have recently moved into our neighborhood. (In fact, they narrowly escaped the recent Fremont Fire. Click here for the Fremont fire story.) They also helped me to stir fry the beef in oyster sauce. We made just the right amount. So I did not get a chance to even taste the delicious fruit salad :-( Theresa and I did sample the beef in oyster sauce. I think I will make my mother proud. However, my father's standard in food is extremely high as he is used to gourmet restaurants in Taiwan and Hong Kong. If he ever tasted my cooking, he would probably check himself into the nearest hospital :-)
Steve and Kathy (two of my Bishop O'Dowd high school classmates) helping us to cook Kung-Pao chicken. They brought fresh fruit salad.
Stephen (another high school classmate) helped us to cook pasta with sausage.
6 servings
(from www.infolane.com/tricityhomeless/index.html )
The mission of the Tri-City Homeless Coalition is to return homeless people to stable housing and positive community interdependence by providing shelter and stability and opportunities to improve life skills and self-reliance, and to advocate and take action to remove the causes of homelessness in Southern Alameda County.
The Tri-City Homeless Coalition's primary objective is to assist homeless people in developing the lifeskills necessary for self-sufficiency and ultimately for re-entry into permanent stable housing. We propose to continue meeting this objective through a transitional shelter program that encourages self-reliance while providing the lifeskills necessary for individuals or households to gain and keep stable housing. Tri-City Homeless Coalition provides the following services:
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Services are available to all individuals and families provided they are sober, non-violent, and willing to follow the rules and regulations of Sunrise Village. Those clients who stay in the program are required to demonstrate progress towards increased self-reliance and independence. As long as contract requirements are being met, clients can remain in the program. The contract requirements include obtaining a stable income and saving up to a 100% of that income.
The Sunrise Village shelter has a capacity of 66 individuals. It has 10 private individual family rooms housing a total of 36 residents, of whom 25 are children. The shelter also has 4 dormitory rooms with individual alcoves for maximum privacy for 30 adults (16 men and 14 women). The shelter is divided into two separate and contained sections for single adults and families, with two dining rooms, common rooms and courtyards.
Tri-City Homeless Coalition has local sites in Fremont and Union City, providing ten units of transitional housing for families moving out of Sunrise Village or the local domestic violence shelter run by S.A.V.E.. This project is called BridgeWay and helps families with housing while they increase their job skills and income. This housing is a "next step" in services that gives local homeless households up to 24 months to gain the skills necessary to afford local market rate rents.
The Alameda County-Wide Continuum of Care Plan estimates that between 9,000 and 12,000 people are homeless in Alameda County on any given night. It is further estimated that 1,100 people are homeless on any given night in the Tri-City area (Alameda County Report, 4/15/97). Annually since 1989, Tri-City Homeless Coalition has served an average of 500 homeless individuals per year. Since moving in to Sunrise Village, the Tri-City Homeless Coalition has been filled to capacity every day and forced to turn away 5 to 10 single individuals daily. Sunrise Village currently has a list of 35 families waiting to enter the shelter. Over 400 different families were on the waiting list last year.
The causes of homelessness in Southern Alameda County are similar to other areas. According to the Alameda County-Wide Continuum of Care Plan, the greatest cause for those seeking shelter is their inability to pay rent. Our experience shows us that the lack of affordable housing, inadequate personal financial management skills, unemployment and under-employment, mental health disability, domestic violence, the prevalence of drug and alcohol use and the shortage of recovery programs are other significant causes.
Some of the unique economic and social dynamics of the large suburban area of Southern Alameda County contribute to the causes of the local homeless problem. Local vacancy rates tend to be almost half the rate for the rest of Alameda County and substantially below the 5% rate considered by HUD to be healthy. The Association of Bay Area Governments recently determined that the Tri-City area needs an additional 12,000 units of affordable housing to meet the need of low-income workers. The local economy has shifted from primarily manufacturing to primarily service based. Entry level wages for low and unskilled workers ranges from $737 to $1,040 per month. The majority of these positions have no or very limited benefits and little opportunity for advancement or training. The rent for a standard two bedroom apartment ranges from $850 to $1150 per month. For thousands of Southern Alameda County individuals and families, rent represents between 50% and 90% of their total income.
Tri-City Homeless Coalition addresses the complex problem of homelessness by first maintaining a safe alcohol and drug free environment where the homeless can stabilize and address barriers to returning and maintaining housing. A range of social services is provided to allow each family or individual to address the problems of income, substance abuse, emotional instability, health, lifeskills and problem solving. Tri-City Homeless Coalition also will continue to widen the continuum of care to include transitional housing opportunities and follow-up case management services.
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