H.O.M.E. Center makes donation to Southside Community Center

H.O.M.E. Center of Central Texas donated more than a dozen cases of water to Southside Community Center amid ongoing 100-degree heat.

H.O.M.E. Center dropped off its donation Friday afternoon alongside cases of Purell hand sanitizer. Southside Community Center Senior Program Coordinator Deborah Villalpando said the water donation was welcomed.

“I know that there’s a shortage of water everywhere,” Villalpando said. “I know when our cook always goes to Sam’s [Club] every week, we try to get at least one case every time just to start building up and he says there has not been anything. So, I’m very grateful. I look very forward to working with H.O.M.E. Center.”

She added that Southside will be able to offer the water donated during its midday cooling stations, which operate from 1-5:30 p.m., Monday through Sunday, when temperatures are above 100. The National Weather Service forecasts 100-degree heat throughout the weekend.

H.O.M.E. Center Board President Grant Snow said the water donation came as an effort to show the community they’re willing to help everyone.

“With H.O.M.E. Center being homeless, outreach, mitigation and emergency, and Southside doing the shelter and the cooling center, we just wanted to give back and make sure that Southside had everything that they needed to be able to give out water, give out hand sanitizer and stuff like that,” Snow said. “Just to help take care of folks because there are a lot of people out here whose stories are different. Some people are in situations just because stuff happened that was outside of their power. If we want to be a part of that as an organization, we want to show that we’re willing to work with everybody in the neighborhood.”

Above, members of H.O.M.E. Center of Central Texas and Southside Community Center take a photo after H.O.M.E. Center provided a donation of water cases and hand sanitizer. Daily Record photo by Nick Castillo

H.O.M.E. Center is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization founded in San Marcos which aims to address homelessness in Central Texas. Founder Hannah Durrance said it’s been four years since the nonprofit was organized and it continues to grow to this day.

“Now we have case managers on site to provide information into Homeless Management Information Systems through the Texas Homeless Network,” Durrance said. “So that’s through [the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development] so that we can actually get demographics and data to show exactly what are some of the barriers that are causing the homelessness in our area and to show why there’s an increase in the number of people who are becoming unhoused. We’re working to bring case management to these clients so that hopefully we can help them get into mental health services or drug addiction rehab or whatever resources they’re looking for. We’re trying to find those resources from the state.”

Snow said anyone who’s in need of assistance can contact H.O.M.E Center for help at 512-270-8433 or homecentertx@gmail.com.

“If you need help, come see us,” Snow said “If we can’t help you, we’ve got resources to help you get whatever it is that you need, whether it’s emergency shelter, trying to work on whatever you need to work on to get into housing. Whatever you need because we’re working with a group called Unite Us and it’s a program where you put in all the resources on a server and everybody who’s on that platform can look at those resources. Instead of having somebody come to H.O.M.E Center and then we send them to housing. Well if they come to H.O.M.E Center, we can put in the notes that we’ve got, housing can put in the notes they’ve got and we’re all working cohesively to help people get back on their feet or whatever it is that they’re looking to do.”