Welcoming Neighbors Home

In Tapestry’s Welcoming Neighbors Home Initiative, we work to serve, and to advocate for, people experiencing homelessness. A group of nearly 40 volunteers are working on this effort. We provide dinner one night a week at the Friendship Shelter Alternative Sleeping Location in Laguna Beach, run food drives and kit-making drives. And we are advocating for more affordable housing – and specifically for 125 permanent supportive housing units in Lake Forest by 2025, and for 700 such units in South Orange County by 2035.

A note about terminology:
Affordable housing is for low income people who can afford to pay some, but not all of the rent payment, with the balance being subsidized. Typically affordable housing is when 30% or less of the renters income is needed for rent.

Supportive housing is affordable housing for people who need more assistance, and includes wrap-around services tailored to their particular needs — such as, case management, medication management, job searching help, financial management.

Quick Reference Guide on How You Can Help
(see details below)

Serve Meals at Friendship Shelter – Contact Bruce Johnson indybruce1@yahoo.com
Make Care & Meal Kits – Contact Ryan Lenney ryan.lenney77@gmail.com
Help Monitor City & County Government – Contact Beverly Huff bevhuff@cox.net
Help Advocate City & County Government – Contact Rona Henry rona.s.henry@gmail.com

At Tapestry’s Welcoming Neighbors Home (WNH) Initiative Kick-off Meeting in February 2020, from left to right, Bruce Johnson (who organizes Tapestry’s monthly dinner at Friendship Shelter with the WHN Leadership Team: Rev Kent Doss, Rona Henry, Ryan Lenney, Julia Rampone, Beverly Huff (missing: Rev Rayna Hamre)

Ways You Can Help—Direct Service

Help Serve Meals at the Friendship Shelter

On the last Thursday night of each month, a group of Tapestry volunteers prepares and serves dishes for dinner at the Friendship Shelter Alternative Sleeping Location in Laguna Beach. (See attached directions for volunteers.

Note: these directions will be applicable once physical distancing requirements have ended due to COVID-19. In the meantime, volunteers drop off food in a central location and then it’s transported by a volunteer to the shelter where staff will serve the food.)

If you are interested in helping to prepare and/or serve meals, please contact Bruce Johnson using the form below.

Guidelines for Serving Dinners

Map & Directions to Laguna Beach Location

Ryan Lenny, Beverly Huff, Rona Henry & Bruce Johnson serve dinner at the Friendship Shelter in Laguna Beach in February, 2020.

Help Make Care & Meal Kits for People without Homes

Ryan Lenney will be leading an effort to put together kits for CityNet caseworkers and other service providers who work directly with people who are without homes. Care kits include items such as chap stick, lotion, hand sanitizer, socks, etc. Meal kits include cereals, fruit cups, snack bars, water bottles, etc.

If you are interested in helping with this effort, please contact Ryan using the form below.

Friendship Shelter – Alternative Sleeping Location, on Laguna Canyon Road in Laguna Beach, where up to 40 people per night sleep, get dinner and have a chance to shower and do laundry.

Ways You Can Help—Advocacy

We need a cadre of Tapestry members who will work in concert to both monitor when the cities are taking action on housing development, and then show up to advocate for affordable and supportive housing.

Become a City Monitor

Bev Huff is providing training to a group of “City Monitors” to show them how to review the housing elements of local cities’ general plans, as well as their planning commission and city council meeting agenda.

The idea is that the City Monitors will then alert our activists and advocates who will write letters and show up at key meetings to express strong support of more affordable and supportive housing units. Bev affectionately calls this group the “Canaries” – because these volunteers will let us know as soon as possible if an important housing development is being considered.

If you are interested in becoming a “City Monitor/Canary,” please contact Bev Huff using the form below.

Become a Housing Champion

We are also looking for people to write letters to elected officials and to speak at city council meetings and Orange County Board of Supervisor meetings in support of affordable and supportive housing, as well as people to cheer on our speakers.

We will provide training in how to make a reasoned argument, as well as how show up to demonstrate your support.
Woven through this activism project will be training in non-violence and spiritual grounding.
If you are interested in learning from Rev Kent and Rona Henry about how to be an activist or advocate, please contact Rona Henry using the form below

Choose how you would like to help and sign up using the form below.