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‘Restoration House’ opens in Lower Lake; facility to offer transitional housing
The five-bedroom house in Lower Lake will provide transitional housing to vulnerable members of the community.
Restoration House was funded by a $300,000 grant from Adventist Health, Adventist Health Clear Lake’s parent corporation.
“We are so proud to see this example of our commitment to community wellness open its doors,” said David Santos, Adventist Health Clear Lake president and chief executive officer. “It is a tangible response to a community need and is aligned with our mission to inspire health, wholeness and hope.”
Restoration House will house clients enrolled in the Project Restoration collaboration, which involves Clearlake city government, local law enforcement, fire district/EMS leaders and public and private community agencies in a united effort to serve individuals in the community who are high utilizers of local services, whether that be time in the hospital or encounters with the local police.
Project Restoration involves the partners in addressing an individual’s whole needs, instead of each agency focusing on a particular issue.
The goal of this approach is to better serve these “super-utilizers” while freeing up time and resource for local agencies to address other community concerns and goals.
Russ Perdock, mayor of Clearlake, first prompted the creation of Project Restoration in response to homelessness in the city.
“We have a lot of work to do, and this partnership lays a great foundation for our greater vision,” Perdock said at a gathering of the Project Restoration partners following a ribbon cutting. “Kudos to Adventist Health and all the partners for pushing the red tape out of the way to say ‘what can we do to help people and make our city better?’”
Marylin Wakefield, manager of grants and community outreach at Adventist Health Clear Lake, shared stories about the first client enrolled in the program and the success he is seeing so far.
Wakefield is managing the Restoration House program with Rev. Shannon Kimbell-Auth.
The home will welcome its first client on Oct. 3 and will have on-site management 24 hours a day.
All clients will be enrolled in Adventist Health Clear Lake’s intensive outpatient case management program.
“With this home and our approach to address all 16 domains of care, we have the ability to create wholeness beyond shelter,” Kimbell-Auth said.
Tim Celli, acting Clearlake Police chief, echoed Wakefield’s happiness in the client’s success.
“Through this project, we are seeing real results,” Celli said. “It encourages our officers, builds community trust and ultimately helps those who need us most.”
Adventist Health Clear Lake’s Community Wellness team has been working hard to set up the home as an inviting space.
“Project Restoration is approaching one client at a time,” said Shelly Mascari, director of community wellness. “However, we hope that this is a seed that helps Lake County reach a point where we are effectively addressing homelessness.”
If individuals would like to learn more about Project Restoration or donate needed items to Restoration House, they are invited to contact Marylin Wakefield at 707-995-5831.