SIERRA VISTA, Ariz. (KGUN) — "I can’t sleep at night knowing that we've shut that down and now people don't have a place to sleep at night,” Good Neighbor Alliance Board President, Mignonne Hollis said.
For years, Good Neighbor Alliance (GNA), struggled financially to fund it's overnight program. The program allows unhoused men, women and families to stay at the shelter during the night. Hollis says it costs $300,000 a year to run, with the majority of the costs being payroll and utilities.
"Every month it was like, how are (we) going to meet payroll this month?” she said. “There's never been grant funding just for overnight operations. No one wants to fund overnight operations. We don't know why, but that's not something anybody ever really wants to do.”
Their current solution involves asking the city of Sierra Vista for money, and merging with Catholic Community Services.
"It allows us the sustainability [so] GNA can continue, as it does, providing the services that it does, employing the staff here that it does, but we don't have to have (the how we're going to meet payroll) that every month,” Hollis said.
On Thursday, the city of Sierra Vista City Council approved giving the shelter $300,000, to be distributed over the next three fiscal years. The vote was unanimous to approve the funding.
“We still need community support. Just because we have Catholic Community Services behind our name now and as a financial backer and helping to administer the work...this is still a community shelter,” Hollis said.
Catholic Community Services officially takes over on Saturday, Feb. 1. Hollis says all of the staff are keeping their jobs, but the board will no longer exist.
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Alexis Ramanjulu is a reporter in Cochise County for KGUN 9. She began her journalism career reporting for the Herald/Review in Sierra Vista, which she also calls home. Share your story ideas with Alexis by emailing alexis.ramanjulu@kgun9.com or by connecting on Facebook.
