July Newsletter

Dear Friend & Supporter:

Summer Greetings to you and Happy 4th of July! We are glad that you are probably in a cool place as you read this letter. A place to be protected from our Sacramento heat is such a simple and basic need. Yet, so many of our brothers and sisters lack basic indoor shelter! Currently, all of the local emergency night shelters are full and turning people away! On any given night there are over 1,200 homeless people sleeping out on our streets and alley ways, in our parks, and along the river banks.

Back in 1983, when we first opened our doors here at Loaves & Fishes, we were serving 100 guests daily, mainly men. Today, we serve a daily average of 650 guests-men, women, and children. Times are bad for many folks right now, and we haven’t seen the worst yet! With our economy in the slumps, gas unaffordable, the crash of the housing market, and a war that is wasting billions of our tax-paying dollars, we are seeing more homeless guests than in the past needing a variety of services.

Many of our new faces are military veterans! The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs estimates that nearly 200,000 veterans are homeless in the U.S. on any given night. That means one out of every three homeless persons in the U.S. has put on a uniform and served this country.

At our Genesis Mental Health, we are seeing many newly homeless veterans suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). We have long been aware of the severe damage it causes, and its devastation in the lives of our guests is pervasive in our work here at Loaves & Fishes. We are now meeting guests who are veterans of the Iraq War, whose PTSD is notoriously related to the frequent and unpredictable loud explosions to which they have been exposed in Iraq. This prevents them from feeling safe in groups, with people they don’t know well, and in situations where someone might walk up from behind them. It often disables them from present and future employment which, of course, continues the cycle of homelessness. If you can help in any way, or have any questions on the effects of PTSD among our homeless guests, please call Kathryn here at Genesis (916)669-1536.

Many of our young and healthy adults are searching for jobs—any job! So if you have any leads on jobs, even jobs for only a day, please call our Day Labor Program at (916) 832-5510.

We are also seeing many new homeless families with small children at our Maryhouse Day Shelter. Many of these homeless families have been evicted for either lack of rent money, or the house they were renting went into “foreclosure”, and they were put out.

To add to our human toll, the county of Sacramento is going to cut 67.9 million dollars from their budget-a huge sum. They are threatening to shut down many social service programs, including the Capitol Health Clinic, which serves our most vulnerable poor and homeless guests who have no health insurance at all!

As we stretch to serve the growing needs we meet these days, we ask you to continue your financial generosity to the work we do with our guests. Your compassion can soften hard times and help us here at Loaves & Fishes to provide the survival services our guests need so much. Thank you for caring!

Love & Peace,

Sister Libby Fernandez, RSM
Executive Director

P.O. Box 2161
Sacramento, CA 95812
(916)446-0874
Fax (916)446-0875

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